LONDON – Reuters
In Sunday’s second televised debate, the debate between the five Conservative contenders over tax cuts to become Britain’s next prime minister heated up, with frontrunners Rishi Sunak and Liz Terras focusing their battle on the economy.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak has emerged as the preferred candidate of the Conservative Party’s 358 MPs, exposing divisions within the ruling Conservative Party and making it yet to predict who will be the next leader. Members will hold more ballots this week, eventually narrowing the number of contestants down to two.
Sunak said on Sunday evening that his priority was to tackle inflation and prevent it from worsening before approving tax cuts.
Foreign Secretary Liz Drace said Sunak had raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years and proposed plans to scrap wage and corporate tax increases at a cost of 30 billion pounds ($36 billion) a year.
“Raising taxes now will stifle economic growth,” he said in a debate televised by ITV.
Secretary of State for Commerce Benny Mordant, currently in third place, also hit out at Sunak, saying the public needed urgent action to tackle the rising cost of living.
A JL poll for the Sunday Telegraph found that nearly half of Conservative voters think Sunak would make a better prime minister than Truss and Mordant.
However, Truss enjoys broad support, including among those most loyal to Johnson. Mordant has topped a poll of the party’s 200,000 members, who will choose who will become Conservative leader and prime minister.