Sunak, Truss take part in another UK leadership debate

LONDON 

Conservative Party leadership candidates Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss took part Monday in another debate in the increasingly acrimonious race to become Britain’s next prime minister.

The winner will be decided by Conservative Party members, who made up the live audience in Exeter, a city in southwest England.

Sunak and Truss did not debate each other directly as in previous debates but were asked questions by a journalist and audience members separately.

Truss came second to Sunak in the preferences of Conservative Party lawmakers but currently leads with the membership who will make the final decision.

At the start of the event, former leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt, who came third behind Sunak and Truss in Conservative parliament members’ preferences, backed Truss.

Mordaunt is popular with many Conservative Party members, and her endorsement is a boost for Truss and a blow for Sunak.

Truss welcomed her endorsement, calling Mordaunt “a great person, a great politician and a great patriot.”

Truss said she was prepared to take on establishment thinking within the government and the civil service and said she was “prepared to break eggs” – and even went as far as refusing to rule out breaking the Treasury into two separate ministries.

“I do think the Treasury needs to change. And it has been a block on progress,” she said.

Truss did rule out, however, a second Scottish independence referendum.

She labelled Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon an “attention seeker” and said she would “ignore” her if she became prime minister.

Sturgeon is the democratically-elected first minister of Scotland’s devolved government and has called for a second independence referendum.

Sunak was asked a pointed question by a member of the audience: “I’d like to know how important loyalty is to you, because I don’t feel you were too loyal to (outgoing Prime Minister) Boris Johnson.”

This was in reference to Sunak’s resignation from Johnson’s government, which precipitated its downfall – though by that point, the entire parliamentary Conservative Party had had enough of Johnson and dozens of other Conservative MPs also resigned from government.

Sunak replied: “Well madam, I respectfully disagree because I was loyal to Boris Johnson for two and a half years.”

Elsewhere, Sunak said: “I’m definitely the change candidate.”

“Liz is, I think, the longest-serving minister in the Cabinet. She was in the Cabinet before I was even an MP, so it’s hard to say I’m the one that’s been around a long time,” he said.

Sunak highlighted his furlough scheme that supported workers during the COVID lockdowns as well as his longstanding support for Brexit.​​​​​​​

The new leader of the Conservative Party, and in turn prime minister, will be announced on Sept. 5.

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