Tonight’s membership hustings in the Tory leadership contest showed both candidates – but particularly Liz Truss – relaxing and even enjoying themselves a fair bit. But they also underlined what the two of them feel they have to say in order to get a hearing with their selectorate.
Both had to commit to more grammar schools because this is a policy that – in spite of abundant evidence suggesting it does not improve social mobility or educational excellence in the way the two claimed tonight – the membership and indeed many Conservative MPs get misty-eyed about.
Both will also have been very aware of quite how angry many members in the audience were about Boris Johnson being forced out of office, as they see it. There was one heckle tonight, which was of Sunak as he talked about his decision to resign. He was accused of ‘stabbing Johnson in the back’. There were many cheers and applause for mentions of Johnson and of the campaign to have him on the ballot paper. The outgoing prime minister will be taking great satisfaction from the way in which his ongoing popularity with members has constricted this contest so much.
Sunak and Truss both continue to revere Margaret Thatcher as the Tories’ leader, citing how she changed this country. Labourites often roll their eyes at this, but the reality is that it is far weirder the the left does not have the same nostalgia about its own multi-election winning leader.
One questioner in Truss’s half of the hustings complained about inter-generational unfairness, claiming that retired people were getting too much support through the triple lock to stay at home ‘watching daytime TV’. The host Nick Ferrari drily observed that this was not a universally popular opinion in the room, and Truss was careful to pay tribute to the contribution that older people can make to society rather than offering unqualified agreement.
The Foreign Secretary enjoyed herself more than the former Chancellor, moving away from some of her earlier performances where some of her answers appeared automated. Sunak had moments where he was clearly a bit nervous about getting the audience to like him, jabbering on a bit about being a Southampton fan and trying to talk over someone who was asking a question in an attempt to make a joke.
Tonight showed that Sunak has two major hurdles to overcome: the bitterness of many Tory members at what they see as being his role in the unseating of Johnson, and his refusal to back ‘unfunded tax cuts’, as he calls them. For Truss, the challenge is to reassure those who do have lingering doubts about whether her tax pledges really do add up. But as her ease tonight showed, she clearly thinks she has the lesser job to do.
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