The next 48 hours have the potential to be decisive when it comes to the outcome of the Tory leadership contest. This evening, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will go head-to-head in a BBC primetime debate – followed by a second clash on Tuesday hosted by TalkTV. Depending on who you speak to, these debates could reset the dial or have no effect at all. But scratch the surface and ultimately both of the campaign teams view them as a moment of risk for their candidate ahead of the ballots going out next week.
Depending on who you speak to, these debates could reset the dial or have no effect at all
It’s Liz Truss who has the most to lose through the course of the two debates. The Foreign Secretary is the frontrunner now the contest has reached the membership stage. She holds a comfortable lead over Sunak in all recent membership polling – with a YouGov poll last week finding that among decided members she is on 64 per cent compared to Sunak’s 38 per cent.
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