Tory hustings - live: Truss vows to take on ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ in swipe at Sunak

But Lib Dems say foreign secretary has had no physical meetings with ministerial counterparts or foreign ambassadors for over six weeks

Boris Johnson meets with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Independence Day

Liz Truss has vowed to “take on” the so-called “Treasury orthodoxy” under which money is handed to areas already heavily invested – in an apparent swipe at Rishi Sunak.

Mr Sunak and Ms Truss faced yet another grilling from Tory party members as they tried to win votes to become the next leader and prime minister.

But both candidates have faced sharp criticism.

Ms Truss was accused of abandoning her duties as foreign secretary, having been absent from nearly all of her ministerial duties since she joined the Conservative leadership race nearly seven weeks ago, according to the Lib Dems.

And scientists hit back at Mr Sunak over his suggestion it was a “mistake” to empower experts during the coronavirus pandemic, in a series of claims labelled “dangerous rubbish” by former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings.

The ex-chancellor told the Spectator magazine that he “wasn’t allowed to talk about the trade-off” of lockdowns during the early phases of the Covid crisis, which he said could have been “quicker”, and claimed to have fought against the “fear narrative” which drove public messaging.

Key Points

• Truss accused of being ‘absent from duties’ as foreign secretary during Tory leadership race
• Ex-chancellor laments ‘mistake’ of empowering scientists
• Consider raising tax to fund energy bill support, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak told

[25 August 2022 16:11 · Adam Forrest]

Sunak could have set up Sage group for economy, says Sage scientist

Professor John Edmunds, a leading epidemiologist and member of the government’s Sage advisory group, has responded to Rishi Sunak’s attack on Covid lockdowns and the influence of the scientists.

He said the group’s role was “quite narrow” in assessing the scientific evidence to help inform the political decision-makers.

The professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine said “there may be some truth” to the idea that the scientific evidence often outweighed the economic data – but suggested it was Mr Sunak’s job to build up the economic impact.

“Where, for instance, was the equivalent of Sage and all its subgroups on the economic side? As the Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Sunak could have set up such a system, but did not,” said Prof Edmunds.

[25 August 2022 16:00 · Andy Gregory]

Truss accused of being ‘absent from duties’ as foreign secretary during Tory leadership race

Liz Truss has been accused of abandoning her duties as foreign secretary, having been absent from “nearly all” of her ministerial duties since she joined the Tory leadership race 46 days ago, according to the Lib Dems.

The party said Truss has held only two phone calls as foreign secretary, and no in-person meetings with ministerial counterparts or foreign ambassadors, since her last physical engagement at the G20 summit in Indonesia in early July.

“Liz Truss has decided to take a self-imposed sabbatical from her role as Britain’s most senior diplomat,” said the Lib Dems’ foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran.

“She has spent months more concerned with furthering her own career instead of standing up for the national interest,” Moran added. “Her mask has slipped and her disdain for diplomacy and Britain’s standing in the world is clear as day.”

Our political correspondent Adam Forrest has the full report:

[25 August 2022 15:32 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak ‘desperate to salvage floundering leadership ambitions’, says chair of MPs’ Covid group

The chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus has hit out at Rishi Sunak following his comments about the pandemic, saying the government in which he was chancellor gave the UK “the worst of all worlds”.

“In his desperation to salvage his floundering leadership ambitions, the former chancellor’s post-match punditry ignores that it was his government’s indecisiveness and unscientific approach which gave us the worst of all worlds; the biggest economic hit in the G7, a tragically high death toll, enormous NHS waiting lists and ironically, more time in lockdown,” said Lib Dem MP Layla Moran.

“Having been responsible for this mismanagement and fined for breaking his own rules, Rishi Sunak has nothing more to say to us about the pandemic beyond apologising and submitting himself and all relevant evidence to the official Covid inquiry which must report before the next general election.”

[25 August 2022 15:16 · Andy Gregory]

Truss and Sunak are both ‘serious, credible candidates’, minister says

Asked whether he was worried about the future of the NHS under a tax-cutting economy run by Liz Truss, the health secretary said she was “the longest-serving Cabinet minister” – but did not comment on her tax policies.

Speaking outside Moorfields Eye Hospital in central London, Steve Barclay told the Press Association news agency: “Well I think the job of the parliamentary party is to give party membership two serious, credible candidates for the party members to then choose from and that is what my fellow MPs have done.

“Liz Truss is the longest-serving Cabinet minister and foreign secretary, and Rishi served as chancellor through the pandemic at a time when unemployment was forecast to rise to 12 per cent, and actually we’ve had the lowest unemployment for 40 or 50 years.

“And I worked very closely with Rishi as his deputy in the Treasury, and I saw the intellect, the ability, the innovation that he brought to things like the furlough.”

[25 August 2022 14:59 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak’s Covid claim branded ‘nonsense’ by doctor

NHS palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke has criticised Rishi Sunak’s Covid comments as “absolute nonsense”.

Describing the situation last January as “the worst weeks of my professional career” with “desperate” people arriving at London hospitals having died in the back seat of an Uber after being told they would wait hours for an ambulance.

“Patients who didn’t have Covid at that time were also dying, because we were overwhelmed. So to now pretend that that was bad practice and that lockdown was unnecessary is absolute nonsense,” Dr Clarke told LBC.

[25 August 2022 14:36 · Andy Gregory]

Rishi Sunak declares loyalty to Liz Truss if she wins Tory leadership

Our deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:

Rishi Sunak says he would back Liz Truss’s controversial tax cuts if she wins the Tory leadership race and denied he will quit politics if he loses.

Earlier this week, Mr Sunak hinted he would reject a job in a Truss cabinet after their bitter battle and refused to say he would back her £30bn-plus tax cuts which he has attacked as a “fantasy”.

But the former chancellor told the BBC the expected winner would enjoy his backing for her tax cuts, saying: “Of course I’m going to support a Conservative government. It goes without saying.”

[25 August 2022 14:18 · Andy Gregory]

Analysis | Questions on nuclear weapon use are tricky for any prime minister (or would-be PM)

In his latest analysis piece, our associate editor Sean O’Grady examines Liz Truss’s response to how the thought of having to the nuclear button makes her feel. He writes:

“One can imagine, indeed recall, how Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair used to deal with such a public challenge. There’d be a slight outage, a little pursing of the lips, a furrow of the brow, and then a measured response loaded with the import of their solemn duty and obligation to protect the British people.

“Truss, by contrast, just stared ahead, and answered as if in a job interview for head of sales or a rookie parliamentary candidate: “I think it’s an important duty of the prime minister and I’m ready to do it. I’m ready to do that.”

“Something in the answer suggested to me, that, even as foreign secretary, Truss hadn’t invested much thought in the possibility, despite the fact that Russian voices have publicly floated a nuclear escalation of the war in Ukraine.”

[25 August 2022 13:40 · Andy Gregory]

Scientists did not decide whether to close schools, says top adviser

Scientists did not decide whether to close schools during the pandemic, a government adviser has said, after Rishi Sunak claimed that he fought against the closure of schools in an interview claiming experts were too “empowered” during the Covid crisis.

Professor Graham Medley from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “Government have the power, so if one member of cabinet thinks that scientific advice was too ‘empowered’ then it is a criticism of their colleagues rather than the scientists.”

“The Sage meetings were about the science, not the policy options, and the minutes reflect the scientific consensus at the time,” said Prof Medley, who was chair of SPI-M modelling sub-group of Sage that advised government in the pandemic .

He added: “Science has no place in the decision whether to close schools or not, but it does have a role to say what the impact on the epidemic might be.”

[25 August 2022 13:24 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak says his karaoke song is ‘Ice, Ice, Baby'

Rishi Sunak has said that his karaoke song of choice would be “Ice, Ice, Baby” by Vanilla Ice, telling a Facebook Q&A that although he was not a “massive karaoke fan” he could do the rap “quite happily”.

Questioner and ally Mel Stride joked that he thought Mr Sunak might choose “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor.

Mr Sunak also said that among those he has been starstruck by in the past were former BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg and TV presenter Andi Peters.

“I was very starstruck when I met Laura Kuenssberg,” he told a Facebook Q&A event. “She interviewed me as chancellor for the first time, I think on my 40th birthday ... My team had to keep telling me, ‘stop being starstruck by her’. It was quite an amazing moment.”

[25 August 2022 13:05 · Andy Gregory]

Britain has to ‘double down’ on Brexit, says Sunak

Rishi Sunak has said Britain must “double down” on Brexit and “actually deliver” on the opportunity to strike more free trade deals around the world.

Asked at a Facebook Q&A if Brexit had reduced the intensity of trade with the EU, the ex-chancellor admitted the questioner was “right” to say trade intensity with the bloc has fallen.

“It’s unclear how much that decline in trade intensity is down to the after-effects of the pandemic … or resulted from changing trade patterns as a result of leaving the EU,” Mr Sunak said.

But he cited Britain having the “new power” to negotiate trade deals around the world as a “big tangible benefit” of Brexit, saying: “We’ve got to double down on that, we’ve got inject some new urgency into that … and find all those opportunities and actually deliver of them.”

Mr Sunak said the country had to “move on” from Brexit debates, adding: “We’ve got to stop referring to people as Leavers and Remainers because we’re all Brits.”