The Conservatives may look united – but a battle for the soul of the party looms

The prime minister knows he will need to set out fresh ideas and his own philosophy in next year’s election manifesto, writes Andrew Grice

Sunak allies say he has simply not had time to define Sunakism (PA Wire)

The Conservative Party might look more united now Rishi Sunak has steadied the ship, but it was revealing how the bitter divisions festering just beneath the surface reemerged after the death this week of Nigel Lawson.

Libertarian allies of Liz Truss hailed Margaret Thatcher’s chancellor as their tax-cutting hero and accused Sunak, who also claims Lawson as his guiding star, of trashing his legacy. They claimed Sunak had broken a central tenet of Lawson’s strategy by freezing income tax thresholds to raise £28 billion a year by 2027-28 – the equivalent of raising the 20p basic rate by 4p. Incredibly, some Truss allies even label Sunak a socialist. News to me.

The libertarians are having a bad bout of selective memory syndrome. After all, Lawson backed Rishi Sunak in last summer’s Tory leadership election, warning prophetically that Truss’ plan to cut taxes without first reducing inflation would raise the government’s borrowing costs and weaken the pound.