Why cost of living talks will have to wait

The Tory leadership candidates will not be joining Boris Johnson in emergency talks about support for people struggling with the rising cost of living. That’s despite calls for them to do so from Gordon Brown, Nicola Sturgeon and the CBI’s Tony Danker, all of whom think the government needs to do something now rather than waiting for September when a new prime minister is in place. Brown’s argument is that Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak need to put aside their differences and agree on something to help families. Downing Street has been very cool indeed on the idea of convening such talks, with Boris Johnson’s spokesman yesterday saying it wasn’t appropriate for the Prime Minister to be taking decisions which were for his successor.

Meanwhile both leadership camps have distanced themselves from this idea, making very similar arguments. The first is that they disagree so fundamentally on what support should look like that it is difficult to identify any common ground.