The Daily Telegraph backs Truss
The Tories were elected on a manifesto and Ms Truss is the candidate who is most wedded to delivering it over the next two years or so. We need a government prepared to encourage growth, reduce taxes and create a businessfriendly environment in which companies can flourish.
The Conservative leadership race has reached a critical juncture now that the estimated 160,000 party members are finally able to vote. It is likely that many will do so having made up their minds following days of frenetic campaigning by the two candidates. August being a month when many go on holiday, the temptation will be strong to make the choice now and enjoy the summer.
While it may still be early in the contest, with the result to be announced on September 5, the two candidates are well known to the membership and have crammed most of what they want to say into their opening salvoes. It is possible to reach a judgment based on what we have seen so far.
This was always a contest for Rishi Sunak to lose. As chancellor during the worst days of the pandemic, he established a reputation for crisis management, overseeing the various schemes introduced to protect employees from the virtual shut-down of the country. To do so, however, he needed to borrow prodigiously and he is right to point out that there are consequences for the decisions taken then.
But he is wrong to say that there is no alternative to the economic policies he espouses. Mr Sunak is a clever and personable man, but one thing that has become apparent is an unwillingness to brook any suggestion that things might be done differently until he is forced to concede ground when his rival’s ideas prove popular.
To begin with, he denounced Liz Truss’s proposed tax cuts as “fairy tale economics” before seeking to portray himself as a tax cutter, though just not yet. In what looked like desperation, he has promised to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 16p by the end of the next parliament.
But the reality is that the Foreign Secretary is not actually promising to slash taxes but rather to reverse increases already announced by Mr Sunak when he was chancellor, along with a temporary moratorium on the Green Levy. She maintains that these are affordable within existing spending limits and does not propose to cut social spending, though if budgets are frozen with inflation at double figures, that will be the result. Nonetheless, this argument is over a difference of about £30 billion which is a lot of money but small by comparison to overall state spending.
We undoubtedly face a difficult winter, with energy prices so high that many people will simply be unable to afford them. Mr Sunak has tried to make a virtue out of his being a steady hand on the tiller in the coming economic storm; but if the ship is heading for the rocks then a new direction is required.
Ms Truss, in her rhetoric at least, provides one. While she hasn’t always been a Conservative, having cut her political teeth as a Lib Dem, she has consistently espoused a small state, low tax approach, broadly advocating a Thatcherite response to the challenges the country faces. She has more experience in government than Mr Sunak or any of the other candidates who put their names forward, having served in the Cabinet for eight years in a variety of departments.
Politics is more than a technocratic process. It is also about persuasion and encouraging hope for the future. Ms Truss is proving to be more adept in these areas than even her closest supporters had expected. Her campaign has been slicker, more self-confident and more sure-footed than Mr Sunak’s. The latter has been struggling to catch up and has lost the support of many MPS as a result. Last night, former leadership rival Penny Mordaunt praised Ms Truss as the “hope” candidate and endorsed her.
Ms Truss’s critics say that she is just telling activists what they want to hear, but she is at least articulating a profoundly conservative view of the future. She will, however, be held accountable for delivering on her promises. Ms Truss says she can be counted on to do so.
Taking over as prime minister mid-way through a parliament does not allow for massive policy upheavals. The Tories were elected on a manifesto and Ms Truss is the candidate who is most wedded to delivering it over the next two years or so. We need a government prepared to encourage growth, reduce taxes and create a business friendly environment in which companies can flourish.
Her supply side reforms are essential if we are to avoid a recession. But she also needs to sketch out a longer-term vision for the next parliament that addresses the issues holding back the country, not least the NHS which continues to take vast sums of money without showing any improvement – quite the opposite, in fact. She has promised a 10-year plan for public service reform and one is certainly needed.
Ms Truss had a faltering start to this campaign but has since not only won the arguments but has looked and sounded competent and proficient. In our view, she is ready to assume the highest political office in the land.
Mr Sunak is wrong to say that there is no alternative to the economic policies he espouses
Taking over as PM mid-way through a parliament doesn’t allow for massive policy upheavals