Sunak suffers new blow as Tugendhat backs Truss for Tory leadership

Former contender Tom Tugendhat said the foreign secretary was the only candidate ready to replace Boris Johnson as PM and unite the party.

A delighted Liz Truss embraces Tom Tugendhat in Westerham, England, at the weekend. Picture: Getty Images

Former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak’s campaign for the Tory leadership has been dealt another blow as former contender Tom Tugendhat endorsed Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

The chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, writing in The Times, said Ms Truss was the only candidate ready to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister and unite the party.

Mr Tugendhat said her plans to cut taxes were “founded on true Conservative principles”. It was “not right”, he added, that the tax burden should be about to rise to the highest level for 70 years when people are facing Christmas with “dread”.

His endorsement is significant as he is a leading figure in the One Nation group of centrist Tory MPs, and popular with Tory party members. The winner of the ballot of grassroots members will be announced on September 5.

Mr Tugendhat’s backing late on Friday will bolster Mr Truss’s claim that she can unite the Conservative party. On Thursday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace also endorsed Ms Truss.

In other developments:

● Ms Truss promised to end the quarter-century ban on new grammar schools.

● She also announced plans to help first-time buyers get on to the housing ladder.

● Mr Sunak pledged to protect the terms “mother” and “woman” in public life by overhauling the Equality Act.

Over the weekend, Mr Sunak blitzed Tory associations in southern England, where his aides believe he has significant support. The former chancellor hopes to make a breakthrough before ballot papers begin to land on doorsteps this week.

“This weekend is crucial for the campaign,” an ally said. “He will be hitting a lot of the country where a lot of the membership is. This war is going to be won and lost in the south.”

Mr Sunak warned on Friday night that Ms Truss’s plans for tax cuts would pour “fuel on the fire” of inflation. He told Channel 4 that the Foreign Secretary’s plans would be like a “sugar-rush”, which would feel good in the short term but soon get out of control.

Mr Sunak also defended his decision to promise a VAT cut on energy bills, after resisting it when he was at the Treasury. He said that although he still believed it was a “blunt instrument” that would disproportionately benefit the wealthy, it was the only viable option before prices rise.

In The Times, Mr Tugendhat also took a swipe at the Treasury, saying: “It’s not the Treasury who runs our companies and generates wealth. It’s people.

“Across our country, millions get up every morning, get together and put their heart and soul into building a Britain that works.”

He argued that the country needed a prime minister with experience on the international stage, and said that Ms Truss, 47, would start with “a huge advantage”, having dealt with the war in Ukraine.

“The world is getting more challenging and the cost of failure abroad is being felt hard at home,” he wrote. “Rising fuel prices, pushing families across our country into difficulty, are bringing the pain home. We know we need answers, now.”

He dismissed suggestions that Ms Truss might struggle to command the loyalty of Tory MPs after she was supported by less than a third of the parliamentary party.

Mr Sunak, 42, said he had been “silly” to say in a BBC documentary when he was younger that he had no working-class friends. “We all say silly things when we’re students, but I’ve talked about my background, my family were welcomed here as migrants,” he said.

The Times