Tom Harris

Sunak’s aggression misses mark

Would Rishi Sunak have been quite as vociferous and aggressive, would he have to talked quite so fast, had opinion polls of Tory members not put him more than 20 points behind his rival, Liz Truss?

The first debate between the two party leadership contenders at first threatened to be a serious affair, with measured, respectful exchanges. But it soon degenerated into a tense, bad-tempered argument, and the fault was largely Sunak’s. It was Sunak whose impatience, and perhaps fear of losing, shaped the tempo of the debate, so keen was he for a “gotcha” moment to expose Truss’s lack of economic experience.

So it must have been frustrating that despite his interventions – perhaps because of them – it was Truss who came out with better sound bites, if not better arguments.

Truss knows her audience and her economic platform is aimed at those who want to believe tax cuts are advisable, not just attractive.

Sunak’s arguments may have been correct, but his aggressive challenges risked falling flat.