UK Politics

‘Borrowing your way out of inflation is a fairytale’: Sunak and Truss clash over economy planTory leadership hopeful Tom Tugendhat has said Boris Johnson is not honest, receiving loud applause as the candidates go head-to-head in the first televised debate.The five contenders to become the UK’s next prime minister clashed in a debate that could determine who wins the backing of Conservative MPs and members.Rishi Sunak, who came out on top of Thursday’s voting, hit out at Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt on how they would pay for their economic plans.He told the Channel 4 debate: “I wanted to be honest with you and everyone else in the country about the challenges we face economically with inflation, and be responsible about dealing with them, even if it wasn’t politically convenient for me.”But Mr Tugendhat sought to undermine Mr Sunak’s assertions when he claimed the ex-chancellor had told him privately that he had only increased National Insurance because Mr Johnson wanted him to.A snap Opinium poll found 36 per cent of viewers believed Mr Tugendhat performed best – while just 10 per cent of Tory voters said the same of Ms Truss.RecommendedShow latest update

1657932000Truss ‘implosion’ could significantly ‘move the dial’ on race, expert suggestsLiz Truss’s “implosion” in tonight’s could significantly “move the dial” on the leadership race, an expert in political forecasting has suggested.Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, who heads Nottingham Business School’s political forecasting unit, tweeted: “If she survives this, let’s just call off debates in future.”Andy Gregory16 July 2022 01:401657928160In his latest column, our associate editor Sean O’Grady says that there’s “no doubt who lost” tonight’s leadership debate. He writes:“The Apprentice episode from hell couldn’t finish soon enough for her. Good team leader? Not poor old Liz Truss on Team Blue Horizon. Or Liz “trussed up and handed her sorry ass on a plate by Rishi Sunak”, as things turned out. “So wooden she should have been sponsored by Cuprinol, the foreign secretary never actually evinced a groan from the audience (although they may well have been dying inside, the same as she was), but she certainly didn’t get them pumped up either. An indifferent public speaker at the best of times, she’s sadly just as bad as she was when she did that YouTube favourite, the “disgraceful cheese” speech a few years back. “Boris Johnson must be fuming. This is supposed to be his secret wonder weapon, his “Stop Sunak” candidate, and he chose badly, as so often. Truss is a politician so frightened by a camera and a live audience of actual floating voters that she can’t even get herself pumped up. Maybe she’s a great laugh in private over a few drinks, and compelling in cabinet committees, but she’s a dud on the telly.”You can read his analysis in full here: More

The Tory leadership candidates have clashed over “fairytale” tax cuts, trans laws and whether Boris Johnson is “honest” in the first live TV debate of the contest.The 90-minute discussion also saw some of the contenders attack climate emergency policies – while all appeared to rule out significant further immediate help with soaring energy bills.In lively exchanges, former chancellor Rishi Sunak ripped into the tax-slashing plans of his rivals, warning that they would fuel inflation and leave everyone “poorer”.Outsider Kemi Badenoch questioned race favourite Penny Mordaunt’s truthfulness when she denied trying to make it easier for people to self-identify as a different gender.While the foreign secretary Liz Truss stumbled over answers, the candidate most likely to be knocked out next – Tom Tugendhat – won applause for being the only one to say outright that Mr Johnson is dishonest.Recommended More

A top contender to replace British Prime Minister Boris Johnson accused opponents of “mudslinging” as the Conservative Party leadership contest ended a bruising first week on Friday with five candidates remainingPenny Mordaunt, a junior government minister and Royal Navy reservist who is little known to the general public, has surged to become the bookies’ favorite to become Britain’s next prime minister. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak remains the official frontrunner, with the most support from Conservative lawmakers in the voting so far. Voting by Conservative legislators is due to continue next week until there are two candidates, who will face a runoff vote among all Conservative party members. The winner of the party race is to be announced on Sept. 5 and will automatically become prime minister.Mordaunt is second, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is in third place and seeking to become the unity candidate for those on the party’s right wing who worry that Sunak lacks commitment to cutting taxes.The contest has turned nasty. RecommendedJacob Rees-Mogg, a Cabinet minister who supports Truss, called Sunak a “socialist” because of the billions he spent to keep the economy afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. Another Truss supporter, former Brexit negotiator David Frost, claimed Mordaunt “did not master the detail” when she worked in his department and had to be moved to another job.Mordaunt urged the party to run “a positive contest.”“I don’t want mudslinging,” she said, adding that opponents were “trying to stop me getting into the final two,” when a winner will be decided by Conservative Party members. Since Johnson resigned as party leader on July 7 after months of ethics scandals, a field of 11 candidates to replace him has been winnowed down to five.Sunak, whose resignation as finance minister last week helped topple Johnson, is running as an experienced minster who can guide the country through the economic turbulence caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. But he is facing attack from Johnson allies who consider him a turncoat.Truss is touting her international experience, as Britain’s top diplomat and a former trade secretary, and is vowing to take a tough line with the European Union in post-Brexit trade spats.Mordaunt’s chief selling points are an air of normality and a distance from the scandal-tarnished Johnson administration. She did not serve in Johnson’s Cabinet.Also in the race are former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch, a rising star of the party’s libertarian right, and centrist backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Both are under pressure to drop out and throw their support behind one of the three front-runners but say they will fight on and try to build support through televised candidates’ debates over the weekend.Johnson won the Conservatives a commanding parliamentary majority in 2019, but has been beset by accusations that he was too close to party donors, that he protected supporters from bullying and corruption allegations and that he misled Parliament about government office parties that broke COVID-19 lockdown rules. He remains in office until his replacement is chosen.Despite the clashes between the Conservative candidates, they agree on most issues. None of the contenders is seeking closer ties with the EU, and none has renounced Johnson’s most contentious policies: legislation to rip up parts of the U.K.’s Brexit deal with the bloc, and a plan to send some asylum-seekers arriving in Britain to Rwanda that is being challenged in the courts.Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the issues most important to Conservatives — above all Brexit — did not reflect the priorities of the country as a whole. That could be a problem for the party at the next national election, due by 2024.“There’s always a potential mismatch between what a party wants — because a party is much more ideological — and what voters want,” Bale said. “(The Conservative Party) has elevated Brexit to sacred levels, and I think that sometimes blinds them to the economic realities that this country is facing.”Recommended___Follow all of AP’s coverage of British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/boris-johnson More

Boris Johnson’s spokesperson was on Friday unable to say whether the prime minister would take part an emergency Cobra meeting about the extreme heatwave about to hit the UK.The prime minister is working from his country mansion of Chequers, where he is reportedly set to host a “thank you” party for supporters over the weekend.In a briefing to journalist in Westminster on Friday prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “Cobra met yesterday and officials from across Government will continue to meet regularly both today and throughout the weekend.”Asked whether the PM would be involved, the spokesman said: “As always the Prime Minister is kept up to date with all the latest information.”And pressed whether he would be joining talks from Chequers, they replied: “He’s kept thoroughly updated on the latest situation.”RecommendedIt comes amid speculation that Mr Johnson has already mentally checked out of the top job while a successor is being picked.Pushed the possibility of a bash at the 16th century country grace and favour pad, Downing Street did not deny that Boris Johnson is hosting a party for supporters at Chequers over the weekend.Asked about reports, a No 10 spokesman said: “As is usual practice, any political events would be for my political colleagues, it wouldn’t be a question for me, but I confirmed that the PM will be in Chequers over the weekend.”The news comes amid claims from opposition parties that day-to-day government has “ground to a halt” while a Tory successor for Mr Johnson is picked.Ministers like Home Secretary Priti Patel and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab have bailed on meetings and committee hearings while reams of government legislation has been put on ice. More

Conservative leadership race: Who is Penny Mordaunt?Penny Mordaunt has told Tory grassroots members that the polling shows she is the only leadership candidate who will be able to defeat Labour at a General Election.She told the online hustings: “In every poll in our party and in the country I top it. I win against Keir Starmer in London. “I poll the highest in both Red Wall and Blue Wall seats. I lead with women, with young people and I also have the best reach in Scotland.”During the debate, hosted by Conservative Home, the remaining five Tory leadership candidates set out differing approaches to the cost-of-living crisis, the Ukraine war, restoring trust and housing.Liz Truss vowed to axe the scheduled corporation tax hike from 19% to 25% next year in her pitch for the Tory leadership. Ms Truss said: “I would reverse the national insurance rise, I opposed it in cabinet at the time because I thought it was a mistake, I think it’s even more of a mistake now when we’re facing such strong economic headwinds.“I would also have a temporary moratorium on the green energy level to cut £153 from people’s energy bills.RecommendedShow latest update

1657896342Who do you think will win the Tory leadership race? Have your sayThe Tory leadership hopefuls have been whittled down to five and are preparing for two live televised debates before another vote on Monday.And we want to know who you think is going to win the contest to be party leader and therefore our next prime minister.Let us know by clicking the link below and voting in the poll. More

A Conservative MP has claimed that people taking precautions during the heatwave are “snowflakes” and “cowards”.John Hayes, who was previously a government minister at the climate change department, suggested that fear of the heat was everything wrong with modern Britain and “the state in which we now live”.It comes as forecasts hit a record-breaking 40 degrees of heat on Monday and Tuesday, amid Met Office warnings that people should stay inside and avoid the sun.But Sir John, a Brexiteer who voted against reintroducing Covid restrictions told the Telegraph: “This is not a brave new world but a cowardly new world where we live in a country where we are frightened of the heat. “It is not surprising that in snowflake Britain, the snowflakes are melting. Thankfully, most of us are not snowflakes.Recommended More

MPs investigating whether Boris Johnson deliberately misled parliament over the Partygate scandal have demanded a tranche of documents, including the prime minister’s diaries and photographs of events.The committee of privileges, which will begin holding evidence sessions in September, after the summer recess, wrote to Mr Johnson and the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, on Friday.Ordering No 10 to release the documents, MPs requested Mr Johnson’s diaries covering eight dates – including 19 June 2020, when a birthday gathering was held for the prime minister in the cabinet room.Both Mr Johnson and the former chancellor, Rishi Sunak, were issued with fixed penalty notices by the Metropolitan Police in relation to this event, as part of the Met’s investigation into breaches of Covid regulations.The MPs demanded the release of all email and electronic event invitations – including those sent via WhatsApp – along with Downing Street entry logs. They also requested the prime minister’s briefing packs for his appearances in the Commons.RecommendedIn addition, the committee requested “all photos for days where Mr Johnson attended any event included in the timeline, including those by the PM’s official photographer Andrew Parsons”.After the prime minister told MPs in December that he had received assurances that no Covid rules had been broken, the committee urged No 10 to release “all advice (including legal advice) and assurances received by Mr Johnson” relating to the events in question.In her letter to Mr Case and Mr Johnson, the chair of the committee, Labour MP Harriet Harman, said: “The committee would be grateful to receive the specified documents by no later than 15 August.”Downing Street, however, could not guarantee that it would provide the committee with all the evidence requested. “You will appreciate that we have recently received those letters and requests, which we’ll now take a proper look at,” a No 10 spokesperson said.“As we’ve said before, we will assist the committee in their inquiries, but once we’ve had the time to look at the letters and requests we’ll set out our response to the committee.”RecommendedBefore Mr Johnson announced his resignation last week, some MPs had been awaiting the outcome of the committee’s inquiry before moving against the prime minister.In spite of Mr Johnson’s imminent departure from Downing Street, the committee will continue its work into whether he deliberately misled parliament, with the issue likely to be thrust back into the spotlight in September. The committee has the power to recommend sanctions if the prime minister is found to have breached parliamentary rules. More

Just five candidates remain in the Conservative Party leadership race following Thursday’s second round of voting.Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, attorney general Suella Braverman, ex-health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt and transport secretary Grant Shapps have already dropped out after failing to amass the support needed.That leaves ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak as the front-runner to replace Boris Johnson, the very man whose resignation last week marked the beginning of the end for the scandal-hit prime minister. Junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt, foreign secretary Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat make up the rest of the pack.The contest now reaches its TV debate stage, with the surviving quintet squaring up three times in five days to thrash out their policy positions on key areas of national concern such as the cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine and the recent resurgence of coronavirus.RecommendedThe first clash takes place this evening (Friday 15 July) and will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 7.30pm, running for 90 minutes and hosted by anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy.The second, on Sunday 17 July, will be broadcast on ITV at 7pm and run for an hour, with more details expected from the broadcaster soon. It will also be available on the ITV Hub.The third and final session takes place on the evening of Tuesday 19 July by which point further candidates will have been eliminated after a further round of voting on Monday.This last instalment will be aired on Sky News at 8pm and mediated by Kay Burley.The Independent will cover all three debates live on our site, bringing you all the latest breaking news updates.They will also be broadcast as they happen on the channels concerned and on YouTube. More