The Tory MPs, who are competing to become the next UK prime minister, locked horns in a second televised leadership debate on ITV on Sunday night.
The five remaining candidates in the Conservative Party leadership’s race - Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat - took questions from ITV host Julie Etchingham on issues dominating the campaign. Here are several key takeaways.
Sunak Accuses Truss of Promoting 'Socialism'
As the Tory leadership candidates clashed over tax and spending in the Sunday debate, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss confronted former Chancellor Rishi Sunak by saying that he had raised taxes “to the highest level in 70 years,” which is “not going to drive economic growth.”
“You raised national insurance even though people like me opposed it in Cabinet at the time, because we could have afforded to fund the NHS through general taxation. The fact is that raising taxes at this moment will choke off economic growth, it will prevent us getting the revenue we need to pay off the debt,” Truss argued.
Sunak responded by stating that the COVID-19 pandemic damaged the UK economy and that the money has to be paid back.
“There’s a cost to these things and the cost of higher inflation, higher mortgage rates, eroded savings. And you know what? This something for nothing economics isn’t Conservative. It’s socialism,” the ex-Chancellor claimed.
Contenders Blame Mordaunt for Making 'Untrue' Remarks
Sunak and Truss, as well as former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch and Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat all took aim at Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt after she claimed that “the polling shows that I’m the only one that can beat [Labour Party leader] Keir Starmer and take the fight to Labour.”
The four other Tory leadership candidates were quick to cry out, “Not true”. Sunak said, “Penny, that’s simply not true,” before Tugendhat laughed and added, “Penny I respect you deeply, but that’s simply not true.”
Badenoch Takes Aim at Tugendhat
Tugendhat said that it was time for a fresh start and people with credibility to become at the helm of the Conservative Party and regain the public's trust. He suggested that those who served in outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government had “lent credibility to the chaos”.
Badenoch hit back and said she's “not ashamed of anything” she and her colleagues “did in government" and that they “have a lot to be proud of”.
“Serving in government is not easy - it requires taking difficult decisions. Tom has never done that. It's very easy for him to criticize what we've been doing, but we have been out there on the front line making the case,” Badenoch said.
Tugendhat retorted by saying that, as a former Army officer, he had been on the front line in Afghanistan and Iraq and had led "in the argument against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and China."
Badenoch, however, insisted that Tugendhat “had not taken any decisions, talking is easy.”
Mordaunt Upholds Her Tax Cuts Plan
The trade minister said that the limited tax cuts she advocated were not inflationary, adding that people across the UK need help now that the cost of living crisis continues to bite.
“I don't understand why Rishi doesn't understand that,” Mordaunt noted.
This was followed by Sunak arguing that “it is one thing to borrow for long-term investment” and that “it is a whole other thing to put the day-to-day bills on the country's credit card,” something that the ex-Chancellor said is “not just wrong,” but “dangerous.”
“Even Jeremy Corbyn didn't go that far. If we are not for sound money, what is the point of the Conservative Party?” he added, referring to the former Labour leader.
No Job for BoJo, No Snap Election Soon, Contenders Say
None of the Tory leadership candidates raised their hands when ITV host Etchingham asked them if they would be happy to have Boris Johnson serve in their cabinet if they were PM.
The contenders were also united in ruling out calling a general election to secure a mandate from the public if they became prime minister.
Badenoch, for her part stressed that, it’s necessary “to give people some stability, they are tired of all the upheaval.”
A snap Opinium poll has, meanwhile, revealed that almost one in four people believe that Sunak won the second TV Tory leadership debate. About 24% of the 1,001 people who took part in the survey, thought that the former Chancellor performed best in the ITV event, with Tugendhat and Mordaunt holding second and third positions with 19% and 17% , respectively. The trade minister was followed by Liz Truss, while Kemi Badenoch performed the worst, according to the poll of viewers.
Monday will see the third round of voting on Monday, during which the candidates will be whittled down to four, with the results expected later in the day.