ishi sunak has claimed that current evidence suggests the Tories would suffer defeat in the next general election under Liz Truss‘ leadership.
The former chancellor also warned that a “huge loan wave” would only make things worse when it comes to inflation, as the couple again clashed with taxes.
It came when a new poll gave Ms Truss an impressive 24 point lead at the Tory membership, with 62 percent of those polled supporting the foreign minister against Sunak.
Only 48 percent said they could trust Mr Sunak, underscoring the magnitude of the challenge he faces to win over the 160,000 members who must determine the next prime minister.
The poll of 723 members, conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, excluded those who did not know the answer from the clue given to Ms. Truss. If included, 49 percent planned to vote for Ms Truss, compared to just 31 percent for Mr Sunak.
Speaking to Andrew Marr on LBC, Mr Sunak said “all the polling evidence we have” points to a defeat for Labor under Mrs Truss.
“It’s pretty clear that I’m the person best placed to beat Keir Starmer in the next election,” he added.
Ms Truss previously defended her plans for tax cuts costing at least £30bn a year as “affordable” when the economic policies of both Tory candidates came under scrutiny.
Although Mr Sunak has promised to cut taxes, he claimed that this would now exacerbate inflation.
He defended his planned corporate tax increase, saying the increase was “completely reasonable”.
“What we’re doing is actually combining that with some other reforms to make the system a lot more generous for the things that we know drive growth, which are businesses to actually invest,” he said.
“It’s all very good that companies are making a profit, and that’s a great thing that I support. But what I want them to do with that is to invest in the economy. In this way we help to stimulate growth in this country.”
Tory leadership candidate Rishi Sunak leaves LBC studios in Central London’s Millbank
/ FATHERMs Truss, in turn, has claimed that the Tories would be defeated by Sir Keir if Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister as a result of the economic policies he imposed while in charge of the Treasury.
While visiting a charity in Peterborough, Mrs Truss pledged to continue with the government’s planned expenditure on social care.
“We can afford it within our budget. We didn’t have to increase national insurance policies,” she said in a covert attack on Mr Sunak’s policy.
“It is still the case that according to my plans we can start repaying the debt within three years.”
Ms Truss has also pledged to scrap the planned corporate tax hike and suspend green taxes on utility bills, insisting her economic plan was “no gamble” despite experts warning it was fiscally irresponsible.
Robert Joyce, deputy director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, estimated Ms Truss’ tax cuts at “more than £30 billion a year – and possibly significantly more”.
The plans “mean higher borrowing or less government spending, or a combination,” he said, though their impact remains unclear as Ms. Truss’s plans “have yet to be worked out.”
He said that, without spending cuts, the tax promises “would likely lead to breaking current tax rules”.
Sunak, who has put economic pragmatism at the heart of his leadership effort, said it would be easy to promise to “do this nice-sounding and this nice-sounding thing,” but argued that making such promises wouldn’t be leadership.
“I think it would damage confidence because part of restoring confidence is that the government and politicians deliver the things they say, and here promise you a lot of things that I don’t think are right or that I don’t think that they would be wrong,” he said.
Both Mr. Sunak and Ms. Truss will participate in 12 hustings for the Tory members who will vote for their next leader, and the result will be announced on September 5.