What the Tory leadership rivals haven’t discussed

In just over a week, Britain will have a new prime minister. No one can say that the 160,000 or so Conservative party members who will have made the choice have been deprived of exposure to the two candidates. The leadership race has dragged on for longer than a general election campaign, with endless televised hustings and public appearances. The process is supposed to be a training ground, testing candidates on their answers to all the toughest questions that will confront them in government. But in this respect it has failed.

High tax is a symptom of a wider problem: big spending. Unless spending changes, any tax cut will be temporary. Yet there has been very little acknowledgment from the candidates that government has grown out of all proportion to its usefulness. Tories seem hellbent on making the problem ever worse. Boris Johnson’s plan to subsidise care homes for wealthier pensioners is an unaffordable folly, yet both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak support the idea, and have doubled down on it throughout the campaign.