UK PM hopefuls trade blows in TV debate
The five Conservative contenders still vying to be Britain's next prime minister clashed over tax cuts in a second televised debate on Sunday, with the two frontrunners – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss – stepping up their battle on the economy. With no clear candidate to succeed Boris Johnson who is stepping down after a series of scandals, the battle to be the next leader remains unpredictable and increasingly fractious, exposing rifts in the ruling Conservative Party. Ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak has emerged as the favourite among the 358 Conservative lawmakers, who will hold further votes this week to whittle down the field of contenders to a final two. He said on Sunday evening his number one priority would be tackling inflation and not making it worse before he would deliver tax cuts. Foreign minister Liz Truss, who has proposed plans to axe increases in payroll tax and corporation tax at a cost of over US$36 billion a year, said Sunak had raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years. "Raising taxes at this moment will choke off economic growth," she said in the debate, hosted by broadcaster ITV. Sunak retorted by saying he would "love to cut tax" but it would come at a cost of higher inflation. "This something-for-nothing economics isn't conservative, it's socialism," he said. Junior Minister Penny Mordaunt, who currently ranks third, also took aim at Sunak, saying the public needs "immediate action" to tackle the rising cost of living. A JL Partners poll for the Sunday Telegraph suggested almost half of Conservative voters thought Sunak would make a good prime minister, ahead of Truss and Mordaunt. However, Truss also has wide support, including from those most loyal to Johnson, and Mordaunt has topped surveys of the 200,000 party members who will ultimately choose who becomes Conservative leader and therefore prime minister. In a demonstration of how open the race is, a survey of party members for the Conservative Home website on Saturday suggested former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch was now ahead of the others, with Truss in second and Mordaunt, currently the bookmakers' favourite, slipping to third. (Reuters)