Tory leadership race - live: Mordaunt criticised for supporting homeopathy on NHS

Foreign secretary vows to axe tax hike and national insurance rise

‘Borrowing your way out of inflation is a fairytale’: Sunak and Truss clash over economy plan

Tory leadership hopeful Penny Mordaunt has been criticised for her support of homeopathy on the NHS.

Homeopathy is a treatment based on using diluted amounts of natural substances, but is not currently funded by the NHS due to its “lack of effectiveness”.

Ms Mordaunt has advocated the practice according to an analysis of her parliamentary record and past comments, and was one of 16 supporters of a motion in the House of Commons criticising the British Medical Association for withdrawing NHS support for homeopathy, in June 2010.

Meanwhile, Liz Truss has pledged that families could receive tax breaks of up to £2,500 to help them take time out of work to look after children or other family members.

Ms Truss has promised a radical overhaul of the taxation system if she gets into Downing Street that would also include ditching green levies on energy bills and reversing an increase to national insurance.

It comes after the five contenders to become the UK’s next prime minister clashed over tax cuts and Boris Johnson’s honesty in a debate on Friday night.

A snap Opinium poll found 36 per cent of viewers believed Tom Tugendhat performed best – while just 10 per cent of Tory voters said the same of Ms Truss.

Key points

• Penny Mordaunt under fire for support of homeopathy
• Truss promises £2,500 tax break for families
• Snap poll puts Tugendhat as clear winner of debate – as Truss stumbles
• Mordaunt says rivals fear her the most and she is not scared of becoming PM
• Truss campaign not involved in ‘black ops’ onslaught against Mordaunt, Shapps insists
• Lord Frost calls on Kemi Badenoch to withdraw and back Truss
• Who is backing whom in race to replace Boris Johnson?

[14 July 2022 18:10 · Jane Dalton]

Kemi Badenoch, former software engineer and surprise contender

Kemi Badenoch has been the surprise package of the Conservative Party leadership contest so far, making it to the final five. Joe Sommerlad looks at her background:

[14 July 2022 17:35 · Jane Dalton]

Raab joins Patel in cancelling scrutiny group appearances

Government ministers are not avoiding scrutiny, a Downing Street spokesman has said, after both Dominic Raab and Priti Patel pulled out of parliamentary committee appearances.

Dominic Raab today cancelled an appearance at the Joint Committee on Human Rights, a move branded “extremely disappointing” by MPs and peers.

The Justice Secretary had been due to attend the committee next Wednesday, and it had been expected that politicians would grill him on the proposed British Bill of Rights.

Under the controversial plan, the successor to the Human Rights Act would assert that British courts do not always need to follow case law from Strasbourg and that the Supreme Court in London is the ultimate decision-maker on human-rights issues.

Members of the committee have written to Mr Raab to express their concerns about his cancelling his appearance.

Home Secretary Priti Patel pulled out of an appearance at the Commons Home Affairs Committee earlier this week.

Ms Patel cited “recent changes in Government” and to her ministerial team as well as “wider unprecedented changes” as reasons for not attending.

The Home Affairs Committee has now published a letter from Ms Patel to MPs in which she declined to meet the committee before the summer recess.

She wrote: “Thank you for your response to my request to postpone our regular evidence session to September and for setting out the committee’s expectations of an appearance next week. My suggestion of September remains.”

The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is made up of MPs and peers, said it was crucial that they were able to scrutinise the Bill of Rights Bill and urged Mr Raab to reconsider.

[14 July 2022 17:00 · Jane Dalton]

Mordaunt gains most votes in second round

Penny Mordaunt gained the most votes of all the candidates in the second round of voting, putting on 16 from yesterday’s total and narrowing the gap with Rishi Sunak from 21 yesterday to 18.

Mr Sunak put on an extra 13 votes and is closing in on the 120 votes required to guarantee a place in the final two, who will face a vote of the Tory membership to decide the next party leader and prime minister.

Liz Truss gained 14 votes but will hope that she can serve as a standard-bearer for the party’s right, picking up supporters from not only Suella Braverman but also Kemi Badenoch, who picked up nine votes but is under pressure from the foreign secretary’s allies to pull out of the contest.

Tom Tugendhat dropped five votes on yesterday, as did Ms Braverman.

[14 July 2022 16:35 · Andy Gregory]

Treasury minister claims ‘we were all frustrated’ with Rishi Sunak’s tax policy

Liz Truss supporter Simon Clarke has taken a swipe at Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak.

Discussing the former chancellor's approach to the economy with Sky News, the chief secretary to the Treasury said: “We were all frustrated by some of the choices in terms of tax, obviously those are private discussions in government when we were bound by collective responsibility.

“But I’m clear I favour a low-tax, pro-enterprise economy and I think Liz Truss has the right approach on that.”

Switching his aim to trade minister Ms Mordaunt, Mr Clarke said: “It is telling, I think, where current members of the government are placing their support. That is reflected in a number of very senior ministers’ decisions about who to support in this race – they are not backing Ms Mordaunt."

[14 July 2022 16:21 · Andy Gregory]

Nadine Dorries urges Tories to ‘all unite behind' Liz Truss

Nadine Dorries has urged Tory MPs to unite behind foreign secretary Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership race.

The culture secretary claimed it was a “great result” for Ms Truss, adding: “Now is the time for us all to unite behind a candidate who actually has the ability to lead the country as PM.

“As foreign sec, she imposed the very toughest sanctions on Putin. That took serious ability and sheer grit.”

[14 July 2022 16:07 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak ‘incredibly grateful’ after topping second ballot with 101 votes

Rishi Sunak, who remains the frontrunner in the Tory leadership contest after the second ballot, said he was “incredibly grateful” for the support of Tory MPs.

“I am incredibly grateful for the continued support from my colleagues and the wider public,” the former chancellor said. “I am prepared to give everything I have in service to our nation. Together we can restore trust, rebuild our economy and reunite the country.”

[14 July 2022 16:05 · Andy Gregory]

Starmer denies seeing ‘dirty dossiers’ on Tory leadership candidates

Sir Keir Starmer has denied seeing dossiers about Tory leadership contenders, after a report in the Sunday Times claimed at least two rival leadership campaign teams had passed the Labour Party files containing a series of allegations about their potential opponents.

During a visit to Berlin on Thursday, the Labour leader said he had not seen any such dossiers, adding: “But looking at the infighting that was going on in the Tory party, I don’t think they need any encouragement from anybody else.

“They’re tearing each other apart on a daily basis. They’re in complete disarray, they’re totally dysfunctional.”

Sir Keir suggested the millions of people across the country struggling to pay their bills were “watching this travelling circus of fighting going on in the Tory party with a government that is not functional at all”, adding: “I don’t think the Conservatives need any help from anybody else in the fights that they are having about the soul of their party.”

[14 July 2022 15:56 · Andy Gregory]

Tory leadership betting odds: Who is backing who in race to replace Boris Johnson?

In the wake of the second vote, our policy correspondent Jon Stone has the latest on who is supporting which declared candidate along with the latest bookmakers’ odds on victory:

[14 July 2022 15:49 · Andy Gregory]

Truss ‘faces narrow path’ to final two, as Tory MPs ‘want a fresh face’

Here is some reaction from journalists to the results, and what they could mean for the next stages of the race.

Liz Truss faces a narrow path to make it into the last two, The Times’ political editor believes.

Tom Newton-Dunn of TalkTV suggests that the dispersion of the results in today’s vote indicates that “the majority of MPs still want a fresh face”.

And Stephen Bush of the Financial Times argues that “the only candidates you can say had an unalloyed good result” are Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt.

[14 July 2022 15:35 · Andy Gregory]

Penny Mordaunt slightly increases lead over Liz Truss and picks up most new votes

The margin between Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss has seen a slight increase – with the foreign secretary coming 19 votes behind her rival in the second round.

Ms Truss will be hoping to hoover up votes belonging to newly-eliminated Suella Braverman as she seeks to close the gap – which has grown from 67-50 in the first round, to 83-64 in the second.

Picking up 16 new votes, Ms Mordaunt increased her vote share in the second round by more than any other candidate: