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?

[16 July 2022 08:36 · Joe Middleton]

Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt make promises that are too good to be true

Rishi Sunak’s rivals are getting away with incredible tax-and-spend plans, writes John Rentoul.

[16 July 2022 08:15 · Joe Middleton]

Boris Johnson’s honesty and net-zero: The key moments from first Tory leadership debate

[16 July 2022 07:56 · Joe Middleton]

Analysis: Tory campaigns slog it out in week that saw temperatures and tensions rise

They say a week is a long time in politics.

It certainly must have felt that way for Rishi Sunak this week. The frontrunner to be the next prime minister had had an understandably busy few days before he stood before Tory MPs in a quiet committee room off a Westminster corridor on Tuesday night.

But, for a moment, he appeared to forget that he was no longer the chancellor, referring in passing to his “department”. And yet it was his decision to resign as chancellor a week before that kicked off a series of events that saw Boris Johnson ousted from power and left Mr Sunak in pole position to replace him.

To be fair to Mr Sunak, the race to become the next Conservative leader was also accompanied by temperatures rarely seen in Westminster, writes our Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin.

On Monday, a student on work experience fainted in the basement of the Churchill War Rooms museum, listening to cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi set out his pitch to become the next prime minister. Over the next few days, Mr Zahawi and a number of his rivals would also fall like flies.

[16 July 2022 07:47 · Joe Middleton]

Good morning

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s politics coverage, with the latest news and analysis from the heart of Westminster.

Last night the five Tory leadership hopefuls went head-to-head in the first televised debate and the candidates clashed on a number of issues, including taxes and trans rights.

A snap poll straight away the debate showed that Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat won the debate and foreign secretary Liz Truss performed the worst.

[16 July 2022 01:40 · Andy Gregory]

Truss ‘implosion’ could significantly ‘move the dial’ on race, expert suggests

Liz 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.”

[16 July 2022 00:36 · Andy Gregory]

In 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:

[15 July 2022 23:46 · Andy Gregory]

Tweet about ‘not talking the talk’ posted by Liz Truss’s account mid-debate

It almost appears as though Ms Truss’s campaign team were seeking to run damage control before the debate was over.

An unfortunately-timed tweet sent out from her official Twitter account reading: “It’s only by walking the walk – not talking the talk – that we really restore trust.”

[15 July 2022 23:15 · Andy Gregory]

Liz Truss debate outfit matches one worn by Margaret Thatcher

Twitter users have been quick to spot Liz Truss seemingly recreating an outfit of Margaret Thatcher’s for her appearance at the debate.

The foreign secretary wore a black blazer and white shirt with a large bow for the event on Friday, matching exactly what the former Conservative prime minister wore in a 1979 election broadcast.

Here’s the verdict from The Independent’s associate editor, Sean O’Grady:

“As part of her perpetual makeover strategy, Truss has been photographed in some remarkable outfits in recent years: like a David Bowie tribute act from his Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) era; a peasant farmer in her orchard; and posing vice-regally in the splendour of the Foreign Office, antique globe placed as if in a portrait by Holbein.

“Now, though, with her target audience of Tory boomers, Liz had herself made up so that she resembled an animatronic waxwork Margaret Thatcher.

“There was the same blonde bouffant, the same blouse with giant pussy cat bow, the same Tory blue outfit, the same icy stare, the same humourless, deliberate delivery – all she needed was the handbag and some pits to close down.”

[15 July 2022 22:52 · Andy Gregory]

Tory grandee praises Tugendhat, Mordaunt and Badenoch

Sir Roger Gale, who is yet to publicly back any candidate, has given his verdict on tonight’s debate, claiming Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss “simply do not satisfy the ‘fresh start’ and integrity test”.

[15 July 2022 22:37 · Andy Gregory]

Watch: Sunak only hiked National Insurance ‘because the boss wanted it’, Tugendhat claims

You can watch here as Tom Tugendhat accused Rishi Sunak of having privately told him that he only agreed to hike National Insurance – a measure intended to fund the NHS and social care – because Boris Johnson had told him to.

The debate saw various candidates clash over taxes, with ex-chancellor Mr Sunak accusing Ms Truss of touting economic “fairytales”, and striving to paint himself as a sole realist among the contenders, willing to take tough decisions such as hiking National Insurance to better fund the NHS and social care.

But this central pillar of Mr Sunak’s campaign risked being somewhat undermined after Mr Tugendhat’s claims, which appeared to leave Mr Sunak visibly shocked.

Mr Tugendhat appeared to be savvy to the advice of Albus Dumbledore, appearing to paraphrase the Harry Potter character as he said: “It’s easy to stand up to your enemies – it’s sometimes harder to stand up to your friends.”