Ahead of tonight’s Channel 4 debate, the five remaining Tory leadership candidates appeared on Zoom for the first public hustings, hosted by the ConservativeHome website. But none really secured a knockout blow, owing in part to the format of the debate – and the reluctance of each to launch into out and out attacks.
Instead, the main fight was on policy, not personality, following some hostile briefings in newspapers over the past 48 hours. And the most ambitious candidate on the policy front was Liz Truss, keen to regain momentum after finishing third behind Penny Mordaunt on the first two ballots. The Truss camp is conscious that Rishi Sunak will almost certainly bag one of the two top slots next week and that they need to lock up much of the right-wing vote in order to join him in the membership ballot.
The Foreign Secretary therefore made what one journalist dubbed ‘the most expensive Zoom call in history’, making more than £20 billion worth of commitments during her 75 minute grilling. She pledged a moratorium on levies on green energy bills and said she would fully reverse the corporation tax hikes. This would be funded by putting the Covid debt on a long-term footing and by greater Treasury fiscal headroom. Will such eye-watering promises pay off on Monday?
Kemi Badenoch meanwhile edged the pack as the punchiest candidate in the debate. She pitched herself as ‘an engineer and problem solver’ claiming that ‘unlike others, I don’t promise things without a plan to deliver’. She also impressed with her call to move beyond the 2016 labels of ‘Leave and Remain’ – a tacit rejoinder to some of the briefing of the past few days. Badenoch also said she ‘doesn’t have the baggage of the last few years’ unlike others in the race of course.
Penny Mordaunt has become the bookies’ favourite in recent days but made little impression in the debate, handling questions with competence – but not much flair. There was also a moment of levity when host Paul Goodman asked them each for their biggest weakness. Badenoch went for her sense of humour while Mordaunt suggested ‘Burmese cats’. Tugendhat joked he talks about the army too much. Truss meanwhile thinks she’s a bit overenthusiastic and Sunak’s answer amounted to being too much of a perfectionist.
In truth, the hustings was more of a skirmish than a full on battle, ahead of the real action expected at the in-person TV clash later today.
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