Category Archives: Liz Truss

Labour would fix ‘broken’ water and energy markets through regulation not nationalisation, says Starmer – UK politics live

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Labour would, however, stick to plans to nationalise the railways if it won the next election, Starmer says

Polling from YouGov suggests that Liz Truss was perceived by Tory members to have outperformed Sunak on every issue covered in last night’s debate.

In particular, she led on Ukraine, cost of living and levelling up, although her lead was weaker on Brexit, the environment and taxation.

There are some lines on PA from Robert Buckland, the Wales secretary who is supporting Rishi Sunak for the Tory leadership, defending last night’s fierce TV showdown as “robust debate”.

There’s this balance to be struck between having a vigorous debate and being sort of almost too polite to each other.

I think it’s inevitable that you’re going to have candidates disagreeing, and frankly, we need to hear what the arguments are.

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Why Sunak may have to change his brand to Rishi the risk taker

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Analysis: Poor strategy in Tory leadership race has allowed former chancellor to be painted as timid, fear supporters

Monday’s debate was supposed to be a turning point for Rishi Sunak, a moment billed as his chance to change his fortunes after polling suggested he was trailing Liz Truss in the Tory leadership contest.

Her awkwardness, her less fluent grasp of detail could be shown up in the head-to-head – similarly to how poorly she performed in the last two debates. “The more they see of her, the more they like him,” was the refrain from Sunak supporters.

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Truss and Sunak trade blows in acrimonious first TV debate

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Leadership candidates ignored calls from fellow Conservatives not to ‘tarnish the brand’ as they wrangled over tax cuts, inflation and relations with China

The battle to become the UK’s next prime minister descended into fierce clashes on Monday night as Rishi Sunak launched repeated attacks on the economic policies of the favourite Liz Truss in their first head-to-head TV debate.

The two Conservative leadership hopefuls traded blows over tax cuts, China and inflation, with the former chancellor Sunak accusing the foreign secretary of seeking “a short-term sugar rush” by cutting national insurance.

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Liz Truss pledges crackdown on unions but is accused of ‘Tory fantasy’

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Labour dismisses Conservative leadership hopeful’s plan for minimum service levels as unworkable

Liz Truss has promised a further crackdown on trade unions, widening restrictions to a significant new number of industries, but her proposals were immediately criticised as the “biggest attack on civil rights” since the 19th century.

Truss said she would legislate for minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure in the first 30 days of government under her leadership. The pledge would go further than the Tories’ 2019 policy, which promised a minimum service should operate during transport strikes.

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Sunak ruse aims to outmanoeuvre Truss over China

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Analysis: claims by ex-chancellor about Foreign Office weakness towards Beijing look like an attempt to head off a similar attack on him

Rishi Sunak’s pre-emptive strike attacking Liz Truss over alleged Foreign Office pusillanimity towards China looks to have been a daring attempt to fend off an imminent assault from his Tory leadership rival.

But it locks the contestants into a potentially uncontrollable dogfight as they seek to prove their credentials as the truer enemy of authoritarianism.

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Tory leadership: Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak clash in heated BBC debate – as it happened

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Latest updates: final two candidates exchange blows over plans for cost of living, levelling up and China

Starmer says Labour’s approach to levelling up will be based on a practical plan, unlike the government’s.

And he says he was impressed by the approach of Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, whom he met in Berlin recently. Starmer suggests Britain could learn from the way new battery factories are located in poor regions in Germany.

There will be no magic money tree economics with us.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss accused of cruelty over Rwanda-style deal promises

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Amnesty International leads criticism of immigration plans announced by Tory leadership candidates

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have been accused of “cruelty and immorality” for promising more Rwanda-style deals to remove asylum seekers from the UK, as charities claimed the pair were pandering to party members’ hardline views.

Amnesty International led criticism of immigration plans announced over the weekend by the Tory leadership candidates, saying the “dreadful” pledges would come at “great human and financial cost”.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss serve up ‘red meat’ policies to tempt Tory members

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Analysis: Leadership contenders compete on hardline approach to Rwanda immigration policy in appeal to the right of the party

It’s not just barbecues that red meat is being tossed on to in the sweltering summer temperatures.

As the Tory leadership contest hots up, a platter of hardline policies is being offered to party members by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, in a bid to whet appetites and boost support in the race to become Britain’s prime minister.

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Rishi Sunak says as PM he would cap number of refugees UK accepts

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Tory leadership candidate’s pledge follows favourite Liz Truss’s claim she would extend Rwanda scheme

Rishi Sunak, who is battling with Liz Truss to win the backing of the Conservative grassroots in his attempt to replace Boris Johnson, has announced plans for an annual cap on the number of refugees the UK accepts.

The former chancellor, who trails Truss by 24%, according to a YouGov poll of Conservative members earlier this week, will on Sunday promise to tackle illegal migration and regain control of the UK’s borders if he becomes the next Conservative leader and prime minister.

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Thatcher ministers turn on Liz Truss over tax cut plans

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Chris Patten, Norman Lamont and Malcolm Rifkind warn former PM would never have approved borrowing to fund £30bn cuts

Tory grandees who served in Margaret Thatcher’s final cabinet have warned that the former prime minister would never have approved of Liz Truss’s plan to slash £30bn off taxes funded by borrowing, as Rishi Sunak denounced his opponent’s plans as “immoral”.

With a bitter row over tax emerging as the defining issue in the race to succeed Boris Johnson, three members of Thatcher’s cabinet told the Observer that she would have taken a dim view of slashing taxes at a time of high inflation.This follows repeated claims that Truss has attempted to model herself on Thatcher in her attempt to win the leadership, which she has denied.

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Rishi Sunak says he is underdog in PM race as ‘forces that be’ want Truss

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Former chancellor suggests Tory party powers hope leadership contest will be ‘a coronation’ for his rival

Rishi Sunak has positioned himself as the underdog in the Conservative leadership race, claiming the “forces that be” want Liz Truss to be the next prime minister.

Addressing a crowd in Grantham on Saturday, the Lincolnshire home town of Margaret Thatcher, Sunak declared “have no doubt, I am the underdog” and suggested that Conservative party powers want the race to be “a coronation” for Truss.

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Rishi Sunak camp says debates against Truss will change Tory members’ minds

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‘Truss is mental and will be found out,’ says supporter of former chancellor as he launches fightback in Grantham

Rishi Sunak will launch his fightback in the Conservative leadership race from Margaret Thatcher’s birthplace this weekend, with his supporters urging party members to delay voting until they have seen him take on Liz Truss in more debates.

Sunak’s campaign team is drawing up plans to try to reverse what one called a “worrying trend” after Truss pulled ahead by 24 percentage points in polling of party members.

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EU launches new legal proceedings against UK over Northern Ireland protocol – UK politics live

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European Commission criticises ‘UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion’ with regard to joint solutions

The European Union has launched fresh legal action against the UK for failing to comply with the Northern Ireland protocol.

In a statement, the European Commission says it is launching four new infringement procedures because the UK is ignoring obligations it has to the EU under the protocol, which imposes customs rules for goods going between Britain and Northern Ireland to avoid the need for checks at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

In a spirit of constructive cooperation, the commission refrained from launching certain infringement procedures for over a year to create the space to look for joint solutions with the UK. However, the UK’s unwillingness to engage in meaningful discussion since last February and the continued passage of the Northern Ireland protocol bill through the UK parliament go directly against this spirit.

The aim of these infringement procedures is to secure compliance with the protocol in a number of key areas. This compliance is essential for Northern Ireland to continue to benefit from its privileged access to the European single market, and is necessary to protect the health, security and safety of EU citizens as well as the integrity of the single market.

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EU launches four more legal cases against UK over Northern Ireland protocol

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New cases come on top of three others already in motion heading to European court of justice

The EU has expressed its anger over the backing given by MPs for legislation overriding post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland by launching a further four legal cases against the UK government.

The claims concern past failures to implement the 2019 deal agreed with Boris Johnson but the EU has been spurred to act by the passage through parliament of a bill that would rip up current arrangements.

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Tory leadership race: Rishi Sunak calls himself ‘common sense’ Thatcherite – as it happened

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Former chancellor says UK ‘needs to control borders’ and again references Margaret Thatcher

In an interview with GB News, Liz Truss was asked if she would keep the expensive wallpaper in the Downing Street flat, installed as part of Boris Johnson’s controversial refurbishment, if she became PM. In what is being seen by some as a dig at Johnson, she replied:

I’m not going to have the time to be thinking about the wallpaper in No 10, because we’ve only got two years until the general election – we need to hit the ground running.

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Rishi Sunak steps up attack on Truss tax cuts as poll puts his rival well ahead

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Former chancellor says opponent’s economic policies risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates

Rishi Sunak has launched his strongest attack yet on his rival Liz Truss’s economic policies, claiming her £30bn plans for unfunded tax cuts risk stoking inflation and pushing up interest rates.

His attack came as a new poll of Tory party members gave Truss a commanding lead in the race to become prime minister.

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MPs claim Foreign Office ‘inaction’ on sanctioning Iranians for hostage-taking

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Officials involved in arrest and intimidation of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe named in Commons

The Foreign Office has failed to sanction key Iranians responsible for the arrest and intimidation of the British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe despite being passed their names in September, MPs have claimed.

Chris Bryant, a Labour member of the foreign affairs select committee, named Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, a state TV journalist, and Hossein Taeb, the former head of intelligence in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as part of a group of 10 Iranians who he said needed to be sanctioned for state hostage-taking. It is the first time the two names have been released.

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Liz Truss’s tax and spending plans sow consternation among economists

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Analysis: experts are lining up to warn that her policies will increase inflation and leave the UK with higher debt

Liz Truss claims her economic agenda of tax cuts and public spending will revitalise the UK economy, but it is not just her rival prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak arguing that the measures will be self-defeating.

Economists have lined up to warn that her £30bn package – including the reversal of this year’s national insurance rise, the suspension of green levies on power bills, and the cancellation of a sharp rise in corporation tax in 2023 – will increase inflation and leave the government with higher debt bills.

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Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss reach final two of Tory leadership race – as it happened

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The final two will face each other in a TV debate on Monday before weeks of hustings with Conservative members

In an analysis of the yesterday’s public sector pay awards published this morning, the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank says the new prime minister will have to decide whether to increase departmental spending budgets, to fund the higher-than-expected pay awards, or to require the awards to be funded from existing budgets, requiring cuts elsewhere. It says:

One option is to top up spending plans to at least partially fund the costs of higher-than-expected pay awards, shoring up departments’ ability to deliver on the government’s public service objectives (such as clearing the NHS backlog). This would come at the cost of higher borrowing and reduced fiscal room for the tax cuts seemingly desired by the entire field of would-be prime ministers.

The other option is to stick to existing spending plans, instead requiring public services to make some painful cuts: to other budgets, to headcount, or to the range and quality of service provision. Reducing the government’s public services ‘offer’ is a coherent response to a series of global economic shocks that make us poorer as a nation. But the government should be honest about what that implies for the NHS, local government, and other public services.

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Tory leadership race live: Kemi Badenoch eliminated as Rishi Sunak tops poll of MPs

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Candidates for next prime minister reduced to three ahead of final MPs’ vote on Wednesday

Penny Mordaunt’s supporters do believe that No 10 has removed the whip from Tobias Ellwood to stop him voting for her in the leadership ballot (contrary to what Nadine Dorries claims - see 11.21am), Newsnight’s Nicholas Watt reports.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist, has dismissed as “ridiculous” claims that Tobias Ellwood has had the Tory whip removed to stop him voting against the Johnson candidate in the leadership contest. (See 10.08am and 10.45am.)

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