Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were in a fierce debate over their rival visions for the future of the UK economy, in their first head-to-head TV debate.
The two contenders to be the next Prime Minister did not hold back from “blue-on-blue” attacks in the hour-long debate on BBC. Mr. Sunak told Mrs. Truss that her tax cut plan would “tip millions of people into misery” and cost the Conservatives the next election. But Mrs. Truss said tax rises brought in by him would lead to a recession.
The Foreign Secretary and Former Chancellor, who until three weeks ago were in the same cabinet, talked over each other at times and shot glances across the stage at Stoke-on-Trent’s Victoria Hall.
It led to complaints afterwards by Mrs. Truss’s supporters that the ex-chancellor was being too aggressive and was “mansplaining”, something fiercely denied by the Sunak camp.
The pair were on better terms by the end of the debate, with Mrs. Truss saying she would “love” to have Mr. Sunak on her team if she becomes Prime Minister. Also, the Ex-chancellor praised her stance on Russia.
The Tax Debate
However, according to reports, the row over tax dominated the early part of the exchanges of the debate. Mrs. Truss said she wants to scrap the rise to National Insurance, a planned rise in corporation tax and would temporarily scrap green levies on energy bills to be paid for through borrowing.
Mr. Sunak on the other hand said she would not cut taxes until inflation was under control. Mr. Sunak, who quit his role as Chancellor earlier this month (July 2022), said the coronavirus pandemic created a large bill and that putting it on the “country’s credit card” would “pass the tab to our children and grandchildren”.
But Mrs. Truss insisted that under her plans, the UK would start paying down the debt in three years’ time, and paying it back straight away as Mr. Sunak wanted to do would rather push the UK into a recession.
Mr. Sunak suggested that Mrs. Truss’s plans would lead to higher interest rates, but the Foreign Secretary dismissed this as “scaremongering” and “project fear”, an echo of the criticism aimed at the Remain Campaign during Brexit referendum. Mr. Sunak also took the opportunity to point out that, unlike him, Mrs. Truss campaigned against Brexit.
“Maybe I learnt from that,” she replied, and later said the Brexit referendum is when she learnt not to trust Treasury forecasts on the economy.
Other Topics in the Debate
Meanwhile, other key moments in the debate included both candidates accusing the other of not having been tough enough on China in the past, Mrs. Truss contrasted her comprehensive school education with that of Mr. Sunak, who attended the fee-paying Winchester College.
Mr. Sunak also said he is “not going to apologise” for his background, adding that his parents’ aspirational values were Conservative, something that earned him the evening’s first round of applause.
Reports suggest that Mr. Sunak’s resignation as Chancellor helped trigger the downfall of Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Mr. Sunak praised Mr. Johnson’s handling of Brexit and the pandemic, but said he quit as a matter of principle over the Prime Minister’s “conduct” and the fact that they have “very different views about the direction of travel on the economy”.
However, Mrs. Truss acknowledged the Prime Minister made mistakes but said they were not “sufficient” enough for the Conservative Party to have “rejected him”. Also, they neither said they would accept Mr. Johnson in their cabinet.
Who Won the Day?
Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Truss-backer, Simon Clarke, told the media in an interview that polling after the debate showed the majority of Conservative voters thought his candidate won the evening, and it reaffirmed his view that she is the right candidate to lead the country. He refused to criticise Mr. Sunak for interrupting, but said viewers would have to make up their own minds about his debating style. Mr. Clarke added that he thought Mrs. Truss was “cool, controlled” and made compelling arguments.
Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, told the media that the debate showed a Conservative Party that “lost the plot and lost its purpose”.
He said Mr. Sunak acted like he had “just come down from the moon” and discovered the economy was in a bad way when he had been in charge of it until three weeks ago, while Mrs. Truss was playing “fantasy economics” without explaining how she would pay for tax cuts.
“We do need change in the UK but the change we need is not a change at the top of the Conservative Party, it is more fundamental than that. We need a fresh start for Britain, we need a Labour government.”
Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer
