Howard backs Sunak

DURING my long years on the Daily Telegraph, first at 135, Fleet Street, and later in Canary Wharf, the great thing about it was that it kept its news and comment separate.

The paper is backing Liz Truss, but to its credit, it carried a piece by the former Conservative party leader, Michael Howard, now a Tory peer, who is backing Rishi.

He said that “economic competence is at an absolute premium. We are fortunate to have a candidate who has shown he is capable of dealing with economic challenges and steering us through very turbulent times.

“Some of us remember the calamitous forecasts that accompanied the start of the pandemic. Unemployment was going to rise to staggering rates, millions of firms were going to shut down and the world as we knew it was about to fall down around us.

“None of this happened and Rishi Sunak is the man who deserves the credit for that achievement. Thanks to Rishi’s furlough scheme, we came through that storm and today we have unemployment at a record low.

“Public polling shows that even now, he would beat Keir Starmer. After two years of Rishi Sunak’s leadership, I have no doubt that we would win.

“Time and time again in our history, when things looked bleak, we have been fortunate enough to discover inspirational leadership which has pulled us through. I believe that there is only one person who can provide that leadership today. That person is Rishi Sunak.”

Howard’s opinion shared by the former attorney general Sir Geoffrey Cox, who also wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph: “Why Rishi Sunak is the man for the job.”

Is the paper starting to hedge its bets?