Truss vs Sunak news – live: Leadership frontrunner branded ‘on holiday from reality’

Rivals to face Conservative members at GB News event

(EPA/Reuters/Getty)

Michael Gove has endorsed Rishi Sunak to be the next Conservative leader, accusing Liz Truss of taking a "holiday from reality" with her tax plans.

His attack on his former Cabinet colleague came as the foreign secretary and ex-chancellor battled it out in Manchester at another Tory leadership hustings event,

Mr Gove claimed Ms Truss would put “the stock options of FTSE 100 executives” before the nation’s poorest people.

“I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality. The answer to the cost of living crisis cannot be simply to reject further ‘handouts’ and cut tax,” he wrote in The Times.

Ms Truss, the leadership frontrunner, was earlier was accused of showing “her true colours” in an unearthed 2009 paper promoting vast spending cuts.

Labour said the think-tank report co-authored by Ms Truss – which called for “user charges for GPs”, the abolition of universal child benefit and the removal of the winter fuel payment – revealed that “the reality of her agenda is devastating cuts”.

Key Points

• Truss and Sunak to go head-to-head in Manchester
• Polling expert ‘would be extraordinarily surprised’ if Truss does not win race
• Truss branded ‘out of touch’ over controversial unearthed report

[19 August 2022 20:23 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak repeats claim he is ‘most northern Tory chancellor in 70 years'

Rishi Sunak has repeated his claim that he is “the most northern Tory chancellor” in 70 years.

“I’m going to go home tonight in Northallerton in North Yorkshire. I do my politics in Teesside,” he said.

“There’s a reason Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Teesside is supporting me. There’s a reason all the MPs in that region, bar one, are supporting me. Because I’ve helped turn that place blue.”

[19 August 2022 20:19 · Andy Gregory]

Government must ensure things ‘are only tough for one winter’, Sunak says

The best way to help struggling families is to make sure that things are “only going to be tough for one winter” by getting inflation under control.

We must make sure “that we get through this winter and then this is the end of it”, the ex-chancellor said, adding: “Because if we’re all here talking about inflation next year, we’re all stuffed.”

Families will be “rightly” furious and the Tories will lose the next general election, Mr Sunak said.t

[19 August 2022 20:13 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak says he backs Truss plan to kneecap striking workers

Rishi Sunak has said he agrees with Liz Truss that striking workers should be forced to maintain a certain level of operation and also would legislate to that effect.

The plans, proposed by Ms Truss, have sparked fury among unions who say they are an attack on democracy.

[19 August 2022 20:11 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak pledges ‘extra financial assistance’ in face of soaring energy bills

This winter is going to be “incredibly difficult”, Rishi Sunak has said, during audience questioning.

Those on low incomes and pensioners “should get direct help” in the face of soaring energy bills this winter, the ex-chancellor said, adding he will provide extra financial assistance.

It will be a “moral failure” and the British people “will never forgive us” if no such help is given, Mr Sunak said.

[19 August 2022 20:07 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak insists he is ‘winning the argument’ wherever he goes

Rishi Sunak has insisted that, wherever he goes, he is “winning the argument” about tackling inflation, being responsible with borrowing, and “actually supporting vulnerable people this autumn”.

“Everyone applauding the fact that we should cancel the NHS levy and have our kids borrow and pay the bill for that – I want to tell you that you’re wrong,” he said.

“Wherever I go, I find that it’s resonating ... I will fight to the last day of this contest and I plan to keep going until the end,” he concluded.

It is mandatory for the final two Conservative leadership candidates to remain in the race until voting is finished.

[19 August 2022 20:02 · Andy Gregory]

Countries the UK strikes trade deals with must agree to take back their “failed asylum-seekers”, Rishi Sunak has said, during questioning on immigration by host Alastair Stewart.

The host is receiving mixed reviews on his questions so far, as evidenced by these two responses from journalists with The Guardian and The Telegraph:

[19 August 2022 19:58 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak calls for ‘radical’ action in NHS

Rishi Sunak is discussing “getting tough” on missed NHS appointments, of which there were 15 million last year.

The ex-chancellor, who is proposing a £10 fine for missed appointments, says we must be “radical” in reforming the health service.

He also said he wants to learn from the “private sector” on elective surgeries, replicating their model within the NHS, which he said allowed doctors to perform many more operations.

[19 August 2022 19:54 · Andy Gregory]

Rishi Sunak grilled on ‘law and order'

That’s the opening pitches over with.

Host Alastair Stewart is now questioning Rishi Sunak, who appeared onstage to loud cheers and people chanting his first name.

He began by quizzing the ex-chancellor on law and order, who said he wants a new unit in the National Crime Agency to deal with grooming gangs.

Asked what he would do to meet streets safer, he initially touted Stop and Search as making a difference to knife crime, before attacking political correctness.

[19 August 2022 19:41 · Andy Gregory]

Liz Truss attacks ‘miserablist mayor’ Andy Burnham

Liz Truss also begins her pitch to the GB News audience with her familiar claim not to have come from a “traditional Conservative background”, and attacking Leeds City Council over its performance during her school years in the city.

Speaking of her support for Northern Powerhouse Rail, Ms Truss added: “I want us to make the M62 the super-highway to success.”

But the foreign secretary continued: “Let’s be honest, in this city, there is a dark pull. There is the miserablist mayor, Andy Burnham.”

Like Mr Sunak, she also attacked him for supporting strikers, adding more generally: “He must be defeated.”

[19 August 2022 19:35 · Andy Gregory]

‘In Liz we trust’: Tory MP Jake Berry touts foreign secretary as a ‘woman of action’

Jake Berry MP is now onstage introducing Liz Truss, calling her “a woman of action” who will “show our communities that levelling up is about delivery”.

The foreign secretary can unite the Tories and unite the country, he said, concluding: “In Liz we trust.”