Liz Truss has abandoned a Tory leadership pledge to slash public sector pay for workers outside London just hours after it was announced, prompting warnings from supporters of her rival Rishi Sunak that such a mistake could cost the party a future general election.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock and influential Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen were among those who likened the “poorly-judged” policy to the “dementia tax” fiasco which partly saw Theresa May fail to secure a majority in the 2017 general election.
Tory MP Mark Harper warned that Margaret Thatcher “would be livid” over the £8.8bn hole left in Ms Truss’s plans after the U-turn, and urged the foreign secretary to “stop blaming journalists” after she sought to claim she had been “misrepresented” in entirely accurate reports of her press release on the policy.
Ms Truss also sparked fury after branding Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon an “attention-seeker” who should be ignored, in comments at the Tory hustings in Exeter on Monday dubbed “deeply troubling” by Ms Sturgeon’s deputy, John Swinney.
Last night’s Exeter hustings in summary
For those who missed the Tory hustings in Exeter last night, here is a summary of some of the key moments:
- Both candidates faced quick-fire rounds of questioning, in which Rishi Sunak insisted he was in politics “to radically transform things” and Liz Truss revealed that the opposition politician she admires most is Labour’s Rosie Duffield.
- Mr Sunak backed the plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda but said it was not good enough for the government just to announce the scheme and must actually “make it work” – moments after insisting the UK is an “unbelievably special” place that “gives refuge to those fleeing persecution”.
- In an uncomfortable overlap with Ms Truss’s vow to press ahead with legislation allowing her to rip up parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Mr Sunak insisted that the UK “can’t rip up treaties we’ve already signed” as he made an apparent dig at her efforts while international trade secretary. The ex-chancellor argued that ministers shouldn’t be rushing to sign post-Brexit trade deals as quickly as possible but should take “the time to get them right”.
- Attempting to claw back support from party members fired up by the radical right-wing politics of former rival Kemi Badenoch, who appear to be favouring Ms Truss, Mr Sunak sought to play up his “radicalism” throughout the evening, going on to insist that he is “definitely” the “change” candidate. In comments that do little for his credentials as the more experienced contender, he pointed out that Ms Truss was in the Cabinet before he was even an MP.
- Calling herself a “child of the Union”, Ms Truss gave her verdict on a second independence referendum by saying the “best thing to do with Nicola Sturgeon is to ignore her” – drawing wild cheers from the Tory audience before labelling the Scottish first minister “an attention-seeker”.
- Ms Truss suggested that the Treasury “needs to change” and, when asked if she would break the department up, said: “Well I wouldn’t want to give them any advance warning.”
- The foreign secretary brushed off polls suggesting she would lose to sir Keir Starmer in a general election, saying: “I’ve seen the opposite polls which said I would win.”
- She also returned to criticising the Leeds school system of her youth, accusing the city’s left-wing council of having “cared more about political correctness than making sure everybody could read and write”.
Liam Fox campaigning for Rishi Sunak in Aberdeen
Fresh from his appearance onstage at last night’s hustings in Exeter, Tory former minister Liam Fox is now at the opposite end of the country seeking to convince Conservative members to back Rishi Sunak.
Truss U-turn sparks general election fears among Tories – and comparisons with ‘dementia tax’ fiasco
Former health secretary Matt Hancock has become the latest Conservative to point to Liz Truss’s U-turn as the type of mistake that could cost the Tories a future general election – similarly to Theresa May’s disastrous dementia tax policy in 2017.
“What if this sort of basic error was made during an election campaign? 2017 all over again. Poor judgement, lack of detail and a gift to Labour,” Mr Hancock said, adding: “Cutting public sector pay outside London is a bad idea … This is levelling down not levelling up.”
Influential Tory mayor for Teesside Ben Houchen also warned that the U-turn could be Ms Truss’s “dementia tax moment” in remarks to the BBC.
Their comments follow similar claims by Tory grassroots group, the Liberal Conservatives, who warned: “Mistakes like this can cost general elections, as Theresa May’s ‘Dementia Tax’ mess showed. Now is not the time for chaotic, uncosted and untested policy promises. We need competent leadership.”
Truss repeats claim her abandoned pay cut policy was ‘misrepresented’
Liz Truss has doubled down on claims that her now-abandoned policy pledge was “misrepresented” – after her press release on the plan was accurately reported to include her campaign’s claim that applying the planned cuts to all public sector workers could save £8.8bn.
But the foreign secretary insisted that people were “unnecessarily worried” about her plans for regional pay boards, telling the BBC in Dorset: “I’m afraid that my policy on this has been misrepresented. I never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses.
“But what I want to be clear about is I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards. That is no longer my policy.”
In response to the suggestion it was an error of judgment, she said: “I’m being absolutely honest, I’m concerned that people were worried – unnecessarily worried – about my policies and therefore I’m being clear that the regional pay boards will not go ahead.”
Here is what Tory MP Mark Harper had to say on the matter, in a sharp rebuke to the foreign secretary:
‘The lady is for turning,’ Sunak campaign says after Truss abandons pay cut pledge
A source in the Rishi Sunak campaign team has joked that “the lady is for turning” after Liz Truss’s screeching policy U-turn today, in a reference to Margaret Thatcher’s famous declaration to the contrary.
The ex-chancellor’s camp echoed Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves in saying that Ms Truss had argued for such a move when she was chief secretary to the Treasury in 2018.
Scrapped Truss pledge ‘highlights worst of British politics’, suggests union chief
Responding to Liz Truss’s U-turn on regional pay boards for public sector workers, the general secretary of the Prospect union Mike Clancy said: “The last 24 hours highlight the worst of British politics at the moment where ministers relentlessly attack hard-working public servants just to chase a headline.
“If Liz Truss believes public sector workers are at the bedrock of society, she needs to call off the attack dogs from her own side and start working with unions and others to give the public the support and services we need.
“The British public are in a fragile place trying to cope with endless waves of rising prices and falling wages. It is time ministers put the national interest before that of their own leadership ambition.”
Majority of voters want 2050 net-zero target brought forward, polling suggests
A slim majority of British voters want the government’s 2050 net-zero pledge to be brought forward, according to polling by Ipsos Mori.
While both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have committed to keeping the target in place, the foreign secretary has pledged to end the green energy levy, which helps fund initiatives such as renewable energy projects and home insulation – and environmentalists have warned that both candidates’ approach to the issue of climate breakdown has been lacklustre during the leadership campaign.
Opinion | This Tory leadership campaign has become a clearance sale of bad policies
In his latest analysis, our chief political commentator John Rentoul argues that “so many terrible policies are being thrown out by the two candidates that it is hard to keep up with pointing out how wrong-headed they are”.
He writes: “It might be possible to welcome this leadership campaign as a carnival of democracy, a bazaar of new policy ideas that will help refresh a tired and unimaginative government.
“Perhaps the candidates should be cheered on as they propose ever more outrageous policies in the hope that one or two of them might turn out not to be a dud. I am not convinced.”
You can read his thinking in full here with Independent Premium:
This Tory leadership campaign is now a clearance sale of bad policies | John Rentoul
Liz Truss wanted to cut public sector pay outside London, while Rishi Sunak proposed £10 fines for missing NHS appointments – less haste, better policy, says John Rentoul
Nicola Sturgeon ‘will be secretly glad’ of Liz Truss remarks, Lib Dems claim
Scotland deserves “to be governed by grown-ups”, the Scottish Lib Dem leader has said, after Liz Truss called Nicola Sturgeon an “attention seeker” who should be ignored.
Alex Cole-Hamilton claimed that Scotland’s first minister “will be secretly glad of these comments because it allows the SNP and the Conservatives to spend their time on a silly and undignified war of words, rather than focus on the difficult and complicated issues that both of their governments are failing to deal with”.
He added: “Neither of them has a plan for tackling the cost-of-living crisis, the climate emergency or the backlogs in the NHS. Scotland deserves two better governments. An election to remove them cannot come soon enough.”
Stormont reconvenes for special sitting to pay tribute to David Trimble
Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly has reconvened for a special sitting to pay tribute to David Trimble, one of the principal architects of the devolved institutions in Belfast, who died last week aged 77 and was buried on Monday after a funeral service attended by political leaders of all stripes.
The powersharing structures Lord Trimble helped create in the landmark Good Friday Agreement are currently in limbo, with the DUP blocking the creation of a governing executive in protest at Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
Despite the impasse, party whips agreed to hold a special gathering in the chamber of Parliament Buildings on Tuesday to allow for tributes to be paid to Lord Trimble.
The sitting saw MLAs on opposing sides of the protocol debate reference Lord Trimble’s legacy as they stressed a desire for powersharing to return. Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill said it would be a “travesty” if the institutions were not restored before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next year.
