The cost of livingtaxes, discussions about Boris Johnson‘s government and questions to each other were some of the key moments during the second conservative leadership debate.
former chancellor Rishi Sunak accused foreign minister Liz Truss and Socialism Secretary of International Trade Penny Mordaunt and the candidates appointed to Mr Johnson’s cabinet and government defended their positions during his tenure.
All five also ruled out a 5% pay increase for public sector workers and called snap elections to secure a mandate if they secure the keys to number 10.
Here are the key points made during the hour-long debate broadcast on ITV:
– Silence on Boris Johnson’s future
None of the Tory leadership candidates said they would give Mr Johnson a job in their cabinet if they won the leadership election.
The five contenders to replace the Prime Minister – Mr Sunak, Ms Truss, Ms Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat – were asked to seat him at their Cabinet table.
No one raised their hand.
But Mrs Mordaunt shouted: ‘He’s got Brexit done!’
– No quick general elections
The five candidates all ruled out calling early elections to secure a public mandate if they became prime minister.
When asked if she would call elections, Ms Mordaunt said: ‘No, we were all on the same manifesto, we all need to come together and it’s a shared manifesto and a shared vision.’
Mr Tugendhat said: ‘No, we have to deliver a manifesto and I intend to deliver it. By showing leadership and commitment, we can bring the party together, bring the country together, end this division and actually make a clean start.’
Mrs. Badenoch said: ‘We have to give the people some stability, they are tired of all the commotion.’
Mrs Truss said: ‘No to a general election, we need 100% of all our efforts to help the people of Britain, I am the person who can do that.’
Mr Sunak said: “We face a huge economic challenge and we now need someone who has the grip and experience to deal with it, and that should be the priority for the next leader.”
– No 5% pay increase for public sector employees
Mrs Truss said: ‘I think it’s very important that the government stick to our guns because what we can’t have is a wage-price spiral.’
Ms Badenoch added: ‘I would like to tell all public sector workers that you get 5%, 10%. But the truth is, it won’t be that easy.
“We need to create an economy that can fund that and I’m not sure we’re there yet.”
Mr Sunak and Mr Tugendhat said the minister should rely on independent pay review bodies, who will make their recommendations to millions of NHS staff, teachers and other workers this week.
Mr Mordaunt said: ‘I don’t think this is the place to judge. We have Pay Review bodies.”
– Questions to each other
The candidates were allowed to ask each other a question.
Sunak and Secretary of State, Ms. Truss, spoke out with their questions, with the former Chancellor asking, “You’ve been both Lib Dem and Remainer. Which one do you regret the most?’
Ms Truss said she had been on a ‘political journey’ and cited her experience of ‘seeing children at my school being abandoned in Leeds’ as her reason for turning conservative.
Mrs. Truss asked Mr. Sunak, ‘Do you still think we should do more business with China?’
He referred to the Integrated Review, which describes China as “an enormous threat to our national security” and called for legislation “to stop hostile investment in this country.”
Mr Sunak said this should not prevent the UK from reaching out to countries around the world.
– Tax policy
The candidates clashed heavily on taxes during the second debate, with Mr Sunak bouncing back Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt’s views on tax cuts after criticizing him.
Ms Truss attacked Mr Sunak’s record in the Treasury, while Ms Mordaunt said limited tax cuts she advocated were not inflationary.
Sunak accused Ms. Truss of “something-for-nothing” economics and said in response to Ms. Mordaunt’s tax loan proposals: “Even Jeremy Corbyn didn’t go that far.”
– Sunak defends her family’s previous non-resident tax status and wealth
Mr Sunak defended his wife Akshata’s past tax status and her family’s wealth during the debate.
He said he is “very proud” of how his father-in-law, billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, who founded the IT services company Infosys, made his fortune.
Mr Sunak said: ‘So I have always been a perfectly normal UK taxpayer, my wife is from another country so she is treated differently but she explained that in the spring and she solved that problem but there is comment about the wealth of my wife’s family.
“So let me get right into that, because I’m actually incredibly proud of what my in-laws have built.
“My father-in-law came out of nowhere, had only a dream and a few hundred pounds that my mother-in-law’s savings brought him, and with it he built one of the world’s largest, most respected, most successful companies that, by the way, employs thousands of people. here in the UK.
“It’s an incredibly conservative story, actually it’s a story I’m very proud of and as Prime Minister I want to make sure we can make more stories like theirs here at home.”
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