After England scored their first goal last night, the team visibly relaxed and had a spell of playing happily until Germany equalised. Liz Truss was in the crowd and saw that sudden surge in confidence up close. Tonight we saw the same from the frontrunner. She enjoyed the latest hustings in Exeter, making jokes about how all the popular misconceptions of her were true. At times it seemed as though the interviewer (Seb Payne, formerly of this parish) and the audience were trying to find out more about what she’d do when she was in No. 10, not if. By contrast, the questions to Rishi Sunak were more about why members should give him a hearing when he had been disloyal to Boris Johnson and had put up their taxes.
Truss was in a particularly buoyant mood because her former rival Penny Mordaunt came out not just to endorse her but to introduce her to the audience.
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