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 19:29 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak vows to make audience members ‘proud’ of his government

Rishi Sunak has pledged to ensure that every audience member “can always feel enormously proud of the Conservative government” that he would lead, in a potential swipe at the scandal-ridden premiership of Boris Johnson.

[19 August 2022 19:24 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak attacks Truss over spending plans

Rishi Sunak has said he will not pursue policies that risk making inflation far worse – inadvertently attacking Liz Truss for wanting to pass £50bn of debt to future generations, adding: “That is not right.”

[19 August 2022 19:22 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak attacks ‘lefty woke culture'

Rishi Sunak said he is saying the things that people need to hear, even if they are not the things that they want to hear, and that is what leadership is all about.

He then attacked a “lefty woke culture that seems to want to cancel our history, our values and our women”, and moved on to criticise Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s record in office.

The ex-chancellor said Mr Burnham was “on the side of the unions and British people deserve better”.

[19 August 2022 19:19 · Andy Gregory]

Sunak touts ‘patriotism, family, service’ in opening pitch

Rishi Sunak is making his familiar introductory pitch to the GB News audience.

“The bonds of family are far greater than anything any government could ever hope to replicate,” the ex-chancellor says, going on to describe his time working at his mother’s pharmacy in Southampton as a child.

The best way to reduce inequality and spread opportunity is to ensure every child in the UK has a first-class education, he said.

“That in a nutshell are my values – patriotism, family, service, hard work,” he said.

[19 August 2022 19:17 · Andy Gregory]

Rishi Sunak is being introduced with a somewhat bizarre video montage which ended with the phrase, “Britain loves an underdog”.

[19 August 2022 19:10 · Andy Gregory]

We’re a little behind schedule, but hustings host Alastair Stewart is now onstage in Manchester.

The hustings event will last two hours.

[19 August 2022 19:04 · Andy Gregory]

GB News viewers ask for Truss and Sunak to be quizzed on immigration and capital punishment

According to GB News host Michelle Dewberry, the channel’s viewers have asked for Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss be quizzed about Channel crossings, pensions – and, in one instance – whether they would hold a referendum on the return of capital punishment.

[19 August 2022 18:40 · Andy Gregory]

Leadership rivals to face questions from Tory members at 7pm hustings

Tonight’s hustings event is set to kick off at 7pm in Manchester.

Alastair Stewart of GB News will interview the leadership rivals separately. Questions, selected at random, will then be put to the pair by Tory party members.

Here is another glimpse of the venue in the past hour from the broadcaster’s political correspondent Tom Harwood, who perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly suggests the event “will not be one to miss”.

[19 August 2022 18:31 · Andy Gregory]

My colleague Maroosha Muzaffar has more details on the unearthed 2009 report co-authored by Liz Truss here:

[19 August 2022 18:28 · Andy Gregory]

Truss clear favourite – but Johnson would sweep floor with both candidates, polling suggests

Polls have consistently put Liz Truss as clear favourite to win the race for No 10, with elections guru Sir John Curtice saying he would be “extraordinarily surprised” if she does not take office.

He told The Times that the foreign secretary “would have to foul up in some spectacular fashion” for her rival Rishi Sunak to enter Downing Street.

The latest YouGov polling of Conservative Party members suggests that two-thirds now intend to vote for Ms Truss – compared with just 34 per cent for Mr Sunak.

However, if the Tory leadership election were a three-way fight including Boris Johnson, YouGov found that the outgoing PM would get twice as many votes as either of those rivalling to replace him.