Tory leadership - live: Sunak warns ‘we’ll lose election if inflation rampant’ as Truss heckled

Former chancellor says he’s ‘particularly worried’ about policies that worsen crisis after protesters interrupt foreign secretary

Sunak boasts of taking money from ‘deprived urban areas’

Rishi Sunak has told Tory members the party will lose the 2024 general election if inflation is not brought under control – in a veiled warning of the risks of electing as leader Liz Truss, who wants to slash taxes immediately.

At a leadership hustings in Eastbourne, the former chancellor said he was “particularly worried about policies that risk making it worse and last longer”.

As the event began, Ms Truss was heckled before resuming her speech to blame “infiltrators” and attack “unfair protests” that “interrupt our democracy”.

Earlier, Mr Sunak was filmed boasting about diverting funding away from “deprived urban areas” towards more prosperous areas that “deserve” it.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy urged the government to investigate the “deeply concerning” remarks made to grassroots Tories in Kent last month – uncovered in footage obtained by the New Statesman .

He told supporters: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone.”

Key Points

• Truss blames ‘infiltrators’ as she is heckled at Tory hustings
• Labour’s Lisa Nandy calls for probe into Rishi Sunak’s defunding boast
• Ex-chancellor boasts of taking money from ‘deprived urban areas’
• BoE defends move to raise interest rates
• Foreign sec insists recession is not inevitable
• Sunak says Truss tax cuts would ‘fuel on the fire’ of inflation

[5 August 2022 22:28 · Katy Clifton]

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