Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is the favourite to become Britain’s next PM, with over 100 votes from fellow Conservative MPs, the only leadership contender to have confirmed having reached this milestone.
Former PM Boris Johnson pulled out over the weekend, leaving just Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt in the race.
But Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak disagreed over recession warning in their latest TV clash
Tory leadership rivals Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have set out competing plans to deal with the economic recession forecast by the Bank of England in their latest TV clash.
Sky News’ Battle for No10 show
Ms Truss said a recession was “not inevitable” if “bold” action was taken.
But Mr Sunak said the foreign secretary’s “unfunded” tax cuts would pour “fuel on the fire” of inflation.
At the end of 90 minutes, Liz Truss had a vision, but there was a reluctance to give all the answers. Rishi Sunak was across the issues, but wasn’t promising a bold new vision to a party fretful about the polls and the economy says Sam Coates, Deputy political editor @SamCoatesSky
Rishi Sunak won the audience, but Liz Truss appears to have a grip on the Tory membership in the country. The audience, made up of Conservative Party members, convincingly backed former chancellor Mr Sunak in a show of hands, rather than Ms Truss.
Liz Truss leads Rishi Sunak by 62% to 38% among Tory members, says polling company YouGov
The survey said Foreign Secretary Ms Truss was the preferred choice of 49% of respondents, compared to 31% for former chancellor Mr Sunak, with 15% saying they didn’t know and 6% not intending to vote.
Once “don’t knows” and those not intending to take part are taken out, this gives Liz Truss a sizeable 24-point lead.
On Monday 25 July, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak took part in a head to head debate on BBC One.
Tory members say Liz Truss triumphed in BBC leadership debate, finds a snap Yougov Poll taken immediately after the debate.
The YouGov poll of 507 Conservative party members who watched last night’s BBC debate between the two Tory leadership candidates shows that Truss is seen as the better performer, with 50% saying so to Rishi Sunak’s 39%.
The two contenders to be the next PM did not hold back from “blue-on-blue” attacks in the hour-long BBC special.
Mr Sunak told Ms Truss her tax cut plan would “tip millions of people into misery” and cost the Conservatives the next election.
Ms Truss said tax rises brought in by him would lead to a recession.
Tory members think Truss came across as more in touch, likeable and trustworthy at the BBC debate, although they are split on which candidate looked more Prime Ministerial
However, on the matter of who looked more prime ministerial, the candidates tied: 43% say that Rishi Sunak did, while 42% give that point to Liz Truss.
Across the multitude of issues covered by the debate, Truss sweeps the board, being seen as better on every single one.