BETA filters Key Facts (1)Rishi Sunak (6)Liz Truss (6)Boris Johnson (3)Robert Halfon (2)Fraser Nelson (1) Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, hosts a phone-in on LBC this morning, replacing James O’Brien, who is on holiday. As the Sun’s Noa Hoffman reports, Streeting said that when Jeremy Corbyn was leader, Keir Starmer asked him if he thought he should stand down from the shadow cabinet because of the party’s handling of anti-Semitism. Streeting said he told Starmer to stay put. NEW: Wes Streeting tells LBC that Keir Starmer asked him if he should resign from Cornyn’s shadow cabinet while shadow Brexit minister for AS etc. Wes said “no we need you there” and stayed — Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) July 22, 2022 Streeting: “We had a very heated discussion about his challenges and Kier said look, do you think I should resign from the shadow cabinet? Is that what you’re telling me? And I said, oh no, for goodness sake, Don Don’t do that . We absolutely need you there.” — Noa Hoffman (@hoffman_noa) July 22, 2022 Yesterday Liz Truss visited a children’s charity in Peterborough. Sky News published this video, showing that the young people he met had surprisingly strong views of Boris Johnson. Updated at 11.09 BST Can Rishi Sunak beat Liz Truss in Conservative leadership contest? Two of the best newspaper columns on the subject today suggest it probably can’t. Prejudice may prevent Rishi Sunak from becoming Prime Minister. For Mr Sunak, the grandson of Indian immigrants, he comes from a demographic long unrepresented at the top of British politics: the old Wickhamists. Winchester, the posh school Mr. Sunak attended, produces smart clogs who never make it to prime minister. Two former Labor chancellors, Stafford Cripps and Hugh Gaitskell, both attended the school, which now charges £45,936 ($55,000) in annual fees. Geoffrey Howe, a former Conservative chancellor who, like Mr Sunack, helped bring down a prime minister, is another alumnus. In total Winchester boasts six chancellors but only one prime minister (from more than two centuries ago). By contrast, Eton, an elite school that extols the virtue of leading over reading, managed 20, including two of the last three. John Stuart Mill once called the Conservatives “the stupid party”. This is not fair. But it is true that the Tories are suspicious of cleverness. They prefer a different characteristic: correctness. This characteristic is difficult to define. But, like pornography, Conservatives know it when they see it. Roger Scruton, a right-wing thinker, wrote that the essence of conservatism “is inarticulate.” To put it another way: anything that can be greeted with the guttural trick that Conservative MPs use to show approval (“Yeeeyeeeyeeeeee”) is sound. The choice the party members now have to make as they weigh who to choose as their leader is between cleverness or correctness. Mr. Sunak is smart. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and his opponent in the second round, is healthy. [Sunak] he promises “radical” plans to “liberate growth” but says nothing more. Having spoken with him over the years about the need for reform, I have no doubt that he is sincere. But he will never have a chance to implement reforms if he doesn’t hurry up and tell people what his plans might be. Truss is probably winging it. Her ideas can be just as flaky as Sunak says. He may not have the slightest idea how he would find the money or what to do if the debt markets are playing well. But he has at least started with a firm promise to make a difference – and if there is no difference, what was the point of ousting a prime minister? Sunak seems to be betting that less is more: that he’s more credible because his offering isn’t flashy. But with so little time left, his strategy may be, by far, his biggest gamble. Bookmaker Ladbrokes says this morning that although Liz Truss is the favorite in the Tory leadership contest, at odds of 4/9, 62% of bets are on Rishi Sunak to win, at 7/ 4. Rishi Sunak claims 20,000 people have signed up to support his Tory leadership campaign. In his interview with Andrew Marr on LBC last night, Rishi Sunak claimed he played a big part in the government’s decision to avoid a return to lockdown last Christmas. He told the program: What I did in December was I came back from a government trip overseas and flew back to this country to stop us sleepwalking into a national lockdown. Because we were hours away from a press conference that was going to lock this country down again because of Omicron, and I went back and fought very hard against the system because I think that would be the wrong thing for this country, with all the damage. it would have done in business, in the education of children, in people’s lives. We were hours away. We were hours away from a national lockdown, but I came back and challenged the system and said this is not right and we don’t need to do it. And I’m glad I won the argument. In the Daily Mail (which is strongly backing Liz Truss in the Tory leadership contest) Jason Groves reports that Sunak’s version of the story is disputed by other government sources involved. Groves writes: A source said Mr Sunak’s claim was “categorically untrue”. “He was out in California planning to stay there for a vacation until he started getting criticized by business people back home. It is categorically untrue to say that we were hours away from another lockdown. “When he came back, the prime minister had already decided he didn’t want to go beyond the limitations of Plan B.” Two Cabinet sources said that when Mr Johnson asked Mr Sunak for his views on the matter at a crucial meeting, he replied: “Oh no, nobody wants to hear from me, Prime Minister.” It is not uncommon for accounts of how and when a particular decision was made in government, and the role played by each individual, to vary. But this story is damaging because yesterday’s YouGov poll suggested that 40% of Tory members do not see Sunak as honest and that this is one reason why they like Liz Truss better. Updated at 10.19 BST Hamish Mackay In his interview with Sky News, Robert Halfon, Rishi Sunak’s supporter and chairman of the Tory education committee, also insisted that inflation was “the No 1 enemy of the cost of living” and that Sunak, not Liz Truss, had the best policies to download it. Asked about Truss’ claim that Sunak’s high taxes had stifled growth, he replied: I do not accept this narrative at all. Yes he put in corporation tax but don’t forget we spent £400bn during covid. I mentioned the interest on the £80bn debt we have. We have £2tn of debt in total. You have to pay some of that money back. But he also cut taxes. It cut national insurance tax for 70% of households. It also cut business taxes on hospitality, retail and leisure. Updated at 09.34 BST
Rishi Sunak has time to win over Tory members and won’t make promises he can’t keep, top backer says
Good morning. The final stage of the Conservative leadership contest has only just begun, but some YouGov polls last night suggested it may already be over. He suggested that Liz Truss has such a big lead over Rishi Sunak with members that it will be very difficult for him to catch up and overtake her. The polls aren’t always right, of course, and opinions change as the campaign progresses, but Truss looks like the likely next prime minister. Robert Halfon, the Conservative chairman of the Commons Education Committee, is one of Sunak’s most prominent supporters and told Sky News this morning that Sunak has time to turn things around. Asked why the members don’t seem to like Sunak, he replied: It is very early in the competition. We have just finished the parliamentary elections and the former chancellor is due to tour the country meeting members. I believe that when Rishi Sunak makes his case, more members will come and support him because they know he doesn’t make promises he can’t keep – and that’s the important thing. One factor that may explain Mr Sunak’s relative unpopularity with members is the perception that he backstabbed Boris Johnson, but Halfon insisted the charge was unfair. He said: Rishi Sunak was very loyal to the Prime Minister. He resigned when he simply thought things had gone too far. He had differences with the prime minister over the economy, but he was there almost until the end. He was loyal until the Partygate episode. Another MP went to see him and refused to support any kind of disloyalty to the prime minister. Halfon is referring to Andrew Murrison, who wrote an article for the Guardian describing how his attempt to persuade Sunak a few months ago to lead a cabinet revolt against Johnson failed. MPs have started their summer break and there is little scheduled on the Westminster agenda for today. But the Tory leadership campaign continues and the news is not going to dry up. I’m trying to follow the comments below the line (BTL) but it’s impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, include “Andrew” somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I try to answer questions and if they’re of general interest I’ll post the question and answer above the line (ATL), though I can’t promise I’ll do it for everyone. If you want to get my attention quickly, it’s probably best to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow. Alternatively you can email me at [email protected] Updated at 09.29 BST
