Inside Politics: Bare-knuckle boxing

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss trade blows in lively TV debate and confusion over Labour’s position on nationalising rail, energy and water companies, writes Matt Mathers

(PA)

Hello there,

I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

Hope you didn’t have nightmares last night after watching Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss stare manically down the camera at the start of last night’s debate. By Halloween, one of these ghouls really will be your prime minister. So let’s take their masks off and have a look at what they had to say, and how it landed.

In other news, a ghost from Labour’s past caused the party some trouble yesterday before Keir Starmer finally appeared to exorcise it.

Inside the bubble

Parliament is not sitting. Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury and a Liz Truss supporter, is out on the broadcast round this morning and will appear on Sky News at 8.30am.

Shadow Treasury minister James Murray is out for Labour and will be on Times Radio, also at 8.30am.

Daily briefing

Round one

Rishi Sunak had it all to do in last night’s TV debate and at times it showed. In contrast to previous contests, the former chancellor went on the attack against Liz Truss, repeatedly interrupting the foreign secretary and speaking over her.

Sunak’s eagerness to make up ground detracted slightly from his sound economic arguments about his rival’s plans for £30bn of immediate tax cuts, which he said would tip millions into “economic misery”. Truss failed to give convincing answers to both Sunak and Faisal Islam, the BBC’s economics editor, on how she would pay for reducing the burden, resorting to accusing Sunak of “scaremongering”. She says Sunak’s taxation plans will stifle growth and send the country into recession.

We don’t usually learn much new in these sorts of TV debates, other than getting to know the candidates a bit more, and last night was no different, with both Truss and Sunak repeating well-rehearsed lines and policy positions set out well in advance. Truss, who said she would deal with the cost of living crisis – the number one issue for Tory members and the wider public – by implementing said tax cuts and reversing the rise in national insurance contributions. Sunak, meanwhile, did not rule out more help with energy bills.

One of the main accusations levelled at Truss in the lead-up to this debate was that she can come across as wooden and robotic – there was scant evidence of that last night, apart from one occasion when you could almost see the cogs turning behind her eyes as she answered Islam’s question on tax cuts. Sunak, meanwhile, was his usual slick self and really does invoke memories of Tony Blair, probably the most effective political communicator the UK has ever seen.

Sunak and Truss defied calls by Tory Party grandees in the lead-up to the debate to keep it clean, with both candidates dishing out personal attacks: Truss accused Sunak of engaging in “Project Fear” about the economy while Sunak reminded the former international trade secretary about her support for the Remain campaign.

The debate itself was far less bitter than some of the media briefings that preceded it. But away from the cameras the gloves remained firmly off, with Team Truss engaging in a bit of bare-knuckle boxing by putting out a scathing statement, criticising Sunak’s “mansplaining and shouty private school behaviour” during the debate. The candidates face off in another head-to-head debate on Sky News on Thursday. Ding ding, round two.

(PA)

Labour pains

The natural order of things would not be right if Labour didn’t manage to have its own row while the Tory leadership candidates tear chunks out of one another in a very public way.

And it was 2017 and 2019 manifesto commitments that caused some confusion for the party yesterday. In a morning interview Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said that nationalising rail, energy or water companies would not be compatible with the “fiscal rules” she would introduce to restrain public spending (i.e, now is not the time to spend public money buying back private companies).

A Labour spokesperson later said that the party believed public ownership could have a “positive” role in rail. And Labour’s shadow transport team went further, taking to social media to say the party was in fact “committed to public ownership of rail”.

Speaking later in the day Keir Starmer said he agreed with Reeves and that “having come through the pandemic it’s important that we have very clear priorities”.

Clear is as mud then? Labour needs to get its own house in order and messaging on such policy areas clear if it is to defeat whoever emerges victorious from the Tory leadership contest. Divided parties don’t win elections. Divided opposition parties don’t win them either.

On the record

A spokesman for Team Truss takes the gloves off after last night’s leadership TV debate.

“Rishi Sunak has tonight proven he is not fit for office. His aggressive mansplaining and shouty private school behaviour is desperate, unbecoming and is a gift to Labour.”

From the Twitterati

Torsten Bell, Resolution Foundation chief executive, laments the lack of time given to climate change during the discussion.

“Longer discussion of expensive suits than net zero…on which neither wants a row either.”

Essential reading

• Tom Peck, The Independent: Sunak and Truss loathe each other. It’s the reality hit of the summer
• Marie Le Conte, The Independent: The Tories don’t need another TV debate – they need group therapy
• William Hague, The Times: Tories must beware Boris the incredible sulk
• Graeme Wood, The Atlantic: The torment of Odessa

Inside Politics first appeared in our daily morning email. You can sign up via this link.