It’s not just the economy – Liz Truss must take a stand on cultural values

SIR – Liz Truss’s commentary (“I’ll govern as a true blue...”, August 2) focused entirely on the economy.

That might be enough for party members – the only people who matter at this stage. But in a general election voters also judge values and culture.

Ms Truss has previously taken a stand on gender issues, on which Suzanne Moore (Features, August 2) exposes Labour’s position as “absurd”.

Ms Truss must build on the earlier support this gained her, including that of people who wouldn’t normally vote Conservative. She should take advice from Kemi Badenoch rather than the recent cheerleader Penny Mordaunt. Tim Barnsley London SW16

SIR – Rishi Sunak’s record is the worst of any Conservative chancellor since Anthony Barber in the early 1970s.

Mr Sunak’s policy errors include the temporary reduction in stamp duty, which stoked property price inflation, benefiting only those with existing assets; his furlough scheme, which was too generous and endured too long; and his huge overspending on failing public services while presiding over the highest levels of taxation, debt and inflation for decades.

His decision to fund social care for the elderly partly by raising National Insurance, paid only by business and the working population, caused my resignation from the Conservative Party last November after 41 years.

I have informed my local association that I will rejoin on September 6 if Liz Truss is elected Conservative leader. Philip Duly

Haslemere, Surrey

SIR – The best PM we never had was Ken Clarke. He was chancellor. Is history going to repeat itself?

Dr Allan Ashworth

York

SIR – Penny Mordaunt has endorsed Liz Truss as the “hope candidate”. For which Cabinet post is she hoping? Adrian Charles

Enfield, Middlesex

SIR – I so look forward to the utopia in which we shall all be living the day after the new prime minister takes office. Peter Harper

Lover, Wiltshire

SIR – The Tories can win again, if they look at history. In 1990, when John Major became prime minister in a similar situation, the party faced electoral disaster thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s catastrophic poll tax.

John Major and Chris Patten realised that voters were most concerned about their own finances and in the run-up to the 1992 election acted to scrap the tax.

Despite a gloomy economic outlook and the Maastricht Treaty fiasco, the election was won. The fact that John Major was a disaster is another story.

J SF Cash

Swinford, Leicestershire

SIR – In September, the number of living ex-prime ministers will rise to six. Is this a record?

Chris Cleland

Farnham, Surrey