TRUSS: I’LL HOLD AN EMERGENCY TAX CUT BUDGET
EXCLUSIVE: Writing in the Mail, she vows to build an ‘aspiration nation’ – and stand up to those who talk down ‘our country, history and values’
LIZ Truss today vows to beat Labour by ‘governing as a true tax-cutting, freedomloving Conservative’.
The Foreign Secretary last night surged into the final run-off against Rishi Sunak in the race to become prime minister, knocking out rival Penny Mordaunt.
Writing in the Daily Mail today, Miss Truss sets out an agenda that will see her pursuing Boris Johnson’s freedom- loving instincts while reversing Mr Sunak’s high-tax agenda.
In an attack on the former chancellor’s record, she says the Government has been ‘going in the wrong direction on tax, with the tax burden at its highest in 70 years’.
She pledges to hold an emergency budget to push through immediate tax cuts to ease the cost of living and encourage enterprise.
‘We cannot have businessas-usual managerialism on the economy,’ she writes.
‘I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April’s national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills.’
Miss Truss also promises to take on the ‘Whitehall Blob’ to
drive through ‘tax- cutting, enterprise boosting, business-friendly Conservative policy’. And she signals that she will take on the Left in the ‘culture wars’.
‘The British people can trust me to govern as a Conservative,’ she writes. ‘I won’t apologise for Britain or who we are as a nation and will stand up to people who talk down our country, our history and our values. I reject dehumanising identity politics, cancel culture and the voices of decline.’
Miss Truss’s comments came as bookmakers installed her as odds-on favourite to claim the Tory crown.
Mr Sunak topped yesterday’s final ballot of MPs with 137 votes, but he faces a frantic few weeks to convince Tory party members to back him. His final tally was well short of the 200-mark once predicted by allies and means he enters the second phase of the contest without an indisputable mandate from Tory MPs.
Multiple polls have suggested he will trail behind Miss Truss when the party faithful cast their ballots.
The former chancellor, whose resignation triggered Mr Johnson’s downfall, claimed he was the only candidate who could beat Labour at the next election.
‘We need to restore trust, rebuild the economy and reunite our country,’ he said. ‘I’m confident we can do that and we’ve got a really positive message to take out to all our members now – crucially, who is the best person to beat Keir Starmer and the Labour Party at the next election? I believe I’m the only candidate who can do that.’ The clash came as:
Miss Mordaunt was knocked out of the contest by eight votes;
Boris Johnson hinted at a comeback, declaring his ‘mission largely accomplished – for now’;
More than 4,000 Tory members signed a petition calling for him to be in the final run-off;
Sources said Mr Sunak’s team protested over the issue of ballot papers in early August, limiting his campaigning time;
Mr Johnson took a parting shot at Mr Sunak, saying major projects would not have been built ‘if we’d always listened to the Treasury’;
Tobias Ellwood, a Mordaunt supporter, had the Tory whip temporarily restored to allow him to vote in the final ballot.
The three candidates spent the final 24 hours scrabbling for votes from Kemi Badenoch’s supporters after she was knocked out of the contest on Tuesday.
Miss Truss leapfrogged Miss Mordaunt into second place, securing the backing of 113 Tory MPs – up 27 on the last round.
Trade minister Miss Mordaunt was second in all earlier rounds of voting but her campaign hit the buffers and she slipped into third place with 105 votes. She said: ‘We must all now work together to unify our party and focus on the job that needs to be done.’
Her allies later attacked the media for highlighting her changing views on issues like trans rights and claims that she failed to pull her weight as a minister.
Mr Sunak and Miss Truss will now campaign to win the votes of up to 200,000 Conservative Party members. Ballot papers will begin to land on doorsteps from August 1, and the ballot closes on September 2. The first of 12 regional hustings for party members will be held in Leeds next Thursday.
The result of the contest will be announced on September 5, and the winner is expected to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister the following day.
WELL, that’s a relief. After a bitter, bruising contest, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have made it on to the final ballot paper to become the next Tory leader.
Whichever one is selected by the party faithful on September 5, Britain knows it will end up with a prime minister fit to assume the mantle.
This paper believes these heavyweights stood head and shoulders above the other candidates – both having proved their credentials running great offices of state.
But it was a darned close-run thing. Trade minister Penny Mordaunt missed out on a place in the run-off for Downing Street by a hair’s breadth – just eight votes.
In light of the concerns about her abilities, flip-flopping on trans rights and consorting with a controversial Muslim group, it would have been a monumental error to let her near No 10. Thank heavens her former bosses and the free Press – led by the Daily Mail – scrutinised her and sounded the alarm.
With less than two months to polling day, we now look forward to a vibrant contest of ideas between Mr Sunak and Miss Truss.
Whoever emerges victorious will confront some of the most daunting challenges in modern times: An economy on the ropes, rampant inflation driving the cost-of-living crunch and war in Ukraine. They must explain how they would tackle the problems facing millions of ordinary people.
Mr Sunak is on the social democratic wing of the party. A fine chancellor who commendably kept households and businesses afloat during the pandemic, he has ruled out tax cuts until we start to pay down our eye-watering Covid debts.
However, traditional Conservatives are angry that taxes have soared to their highest since the 1940s on his watch. And many will never forgive him for delivering hemlock to Boris Johnson.
Foreign Secretary Miss Truss, meanwhile, is a true-blue Tory. Unashamedly small state and free market, she is a doer who isn’t obsessed with her image.
In these pages, she explains how she will cut taxes – including the loathed national insurance hike – to turbo-charge growth. And she will staunchly defend free speech.
But other crucial questions remain for each candidate: Will they free businesses from throttling red tape? Are they determined to deliver the benefits of Brexit and stand up to the EU over Northern Ireland?
Are they committed to tackling the Channel migrant crisis, standing up to the green lobby and woke brigade, and curbing the power of the tech giants? And if so, how? Britain needs action, not fine words.
True, the Tories are in the doldrums. But Labour is a drab Opposition. Dull Sir Keir Starmer is a policy vacuum. He doesn’t even know if a woman has a penis.
With the right policies, ambition and attention to detail, our new PM can forge an inspiring agenda to win the next election – and prevent Labour destroying Britain with a nightmarish coalition of chaos.