Former UK chancellor Rishi Sunak has officially launched his campaign to become the next prime minister, pledging to run in a clean contest and not “demonize” Boris Johnson.
But Johnson’s truce offer, still incensed by Sunak’s alleged “betrayal”, was not reciprocated: allies of the resigned prime minister mobilized on Tuesday to try to “stop Rishi”.
Brexit Opportunities Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, Johnson’s staunchest cabinet allies, announced in Downing Street that they would back Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to fly the right-wing, pro-Brexit flag in the race.
Rees-Mogg said Truss, who campaigned for Remain in 2016, was a “pure Eurosceptic” and that she had opposed in cabinet a series of tax rises by Sunak, whom he labeled a “socialist”.
As the leadership race reached its first big moment – nominations closing at 6pm on Tuesday – Home Minister Priti Patel confirmed she would not run.
Patel’s allies said she was considering throwing her support behind Truss, who has emerged as the right-wing Tory’s preferred choice, or new chancellor Nadhim Zahawi.
Sunak launched his campaign promising to heal divisions in the party, declaring that Johnson had a “good heart” and that he was “one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met.” He added: “Was there a downside? Yes, but we all are.”
The front-runner was joined on the campaign trail by Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab and Transport Minister Grant Shapps, who backed him.
Shapps withdrew from the leadership race on Tuesday hours before the deadline for nominations. Tory MPs believed he would fail to secure the support of 20 peers needed to get on the ballot.
As the deadline approached and with the first round of voting on Wednesday, there was a frenzy of activity in Westminster as candidates tried to build momentum.
Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee, launched their campaigns, while Penny Mordaunt, the trade secretary and party campaigner favorite, won the support of former Brexit secretary David Davis .
Davies said Mordaunt was “most likely to beat Rishi Sunak”. Many Tory MPs believe that either Mordaunt or Truss will make the final list of two along with the former chancellor to be chosen by party members.
Sunak’s release attracted the most media attention. He promised to have a “grown-up conversation” with the party and said he would only cut taxes once inflation was tamed.
He focused on business tax reform to boost investment and innovation and a “new consensus” on immigration that combines “border controls” with a regime that allows talent to enter Britain to boost growth.
Sunak, whose cause has long been championed by Dominic Cummings, a former top adviser to Johnson, said the controversial official would have “absolutely nothing to do with the government that I have the privilege of leading.”
Shapps was joined at the launch by former Tory chief whip Gavin Williamson. Sunak’s two supporters worked together to orchestrate Johnson’s successful 2019 leadership campaign.
Sunak has faced strong criticism from rivals for presiding over a series of tax increases. Many other candidates are proposing massive tax cuts in an attempt to appeal to the right wing of the party.
The chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent fiscal watchdog, said on Tuesday that any proposed tax cuts should “stack up”, warning that they are not the most important thing for long-term economic growth.
Speaking to the Institute for Government think tank, Richard Hughes said the question you should ask candidates promising tax cuts is: “Are you going to revisit these spending increases or are you going to look somewhere else?”
He also questioned the impact of tax cuts on stimulating growth.
“Tax cuts may provide some short-term stimulus to demand,” he said, but added that this would come against a backdrop of rising inflation and interest rates, as well as uncertainty about the medium-term fiscal outlook.
Badenoch announced that as prime minister he would scrap the net zero climate goal, saying the policy had damaged British industry with emissions simply rising elsewhere.
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Badenoch, who was born in London but spent her childhood in the US and Nigeria, said she believed in “free markets, limited government and a strong nation state”. She is backed by former Equalities Secretary Michael Gove.
In his launch, Tugendhat said the UK “desperately needs unity, not factions”, promised a “new start” for the party and said voters were facing an economic crisis.
“There is more than a month’s pay for so many. There is division in our politics, an economy saddled with debt and despair about our future,” he said.
He also promised to continue Johnson’s equalization program to tackle regional inequality, offering an “Oxbridge of the North” for vocational education, plus a Brexit-related deregulation agenda.
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