LONDON (AP) – The two candidates vying to be Britain’s next prime minister clashed Monday over how to help families struggling with the rising cost of living, meeting in a televised debate that highlighted the contrasting economic visions of the Conservative Party’s rivals.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss promised to cut taxes as soon as she took office, using the loans to pay for it. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said he would get inflation under control first, arguing that Truss’s plan would increase public debt and leave people worse off in the long run.
Tempers flared when Sunak said “it’s not moral to ask our children to pick up the tab for bills we’re not willing to pay.”
Truss called this “Project Fear” and said it was reasonable to borrow to rebuild from the coronavirus pandemic, a “100-year event”.
The pair are vying to succeed Boris Johnson, who resigned as leader of the ruling Conservative Party on July 7 after months of ethics scandals triggered a mass exodus of ministers from his government. The contest has exposed deep divisions within the party as it tries to move ahead of the tarnished but election-winning Johnson.
Oddsmakers say Truss is the favorite to win. He is outperforming Sunak in Tory member polls, although Sunak has the lead among voters overall.
The winner will be chosen by around 180,000 members of the Conservative Party and will automatically become prime minister, ruling a country of 67 million. Party members will vote over the summer, with the result announced on September 5. Johnson remains acting prime minister until his successor is chosen.
Truss, 46, and Sunak, 42, have wooed the Conservatives by doubling down on policies thought to appeal to the right-wing conservative base, including a controversial plan to deport some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The government says the policy will deter people smugglers from sending migrants on dangerous journeys across the Channel. Political opponents, human rights organizations and even a few conservative lawmakers say it’s immoral, illegal and a waste of taxpayer money.
The first scheduled deportation flight was suspended after the legal rulings last month, and the entire policy is now being challenged in the British courts.
Hard-line policies such as the Rwanda plan are less popular with voters as a whole than with the Conservatives, but the British electorate will not have a say on the government until the next national election, due in late 2024.
The leadership election comes amid a cost-of-living crisis driven by rising food and energy prices, partly due to the war in Ukraine. While many countries are experiencing economic turmoil, the UK is compounded by the country’s exit from the European Union, which has complicated trade and travel relations with the UK’s largest trading partner.
Both Sunak and Truss are staunch supporters of Brexit, which was the signature policy of the Johnson government.
Both denied that Brexit was responsible for the long queues of vehicles waiting to cross to France at the port of Dover in recent days.
Sunak is presenting herself as a candidate of fiscal probity, while Truss has positioned herself as a disruptor who will “challenge orthodoxy” and “get things done”.
The two sparred over issues such as China policy, with Truss accusing Sunak of changing his position on relations with Beijing.
Sunak says China represents the “biggest long-term threat to Britain” and that if elected he would close Britain’s 30 Confucius Institutes. Funded by the Chinese government, the institutes teach Chinese language and culture, but have been accused of spreading pro-Beijing propaganda.
“As recently as a month ago you were pushing for closer trade relations with China,” said Truss, who warned that the West should not become “strategically dependent” on China.
“I’m glad you’ve come back to my way of thinking,” she said.
Sunak faces hostility from Johnson’s allies, who see him as a setback for quitting the government earlier this month, a move that helped oust the prime minister. Truss chose to remain in the caretaker government.
Both candidates, however, said Johnson would not be part of their government if he became prime minister.
“I think we have to look forward at this point,” Sunak said.
Truss said Johnson “deserves a well-earned break” and added: “What’s done is done.”
Many Conservatives worry that the bitter infighting the campaign has already sparked will only benefit the opposition Labor Party. Former party president Amanda Milling said the contest was “more toxic than I’ve ever seen”.
Writing on Twitter, he urged both candidates to sign up to a “Clean Campaign Charter”, saying that without it “the lasting damage to our Party could leave us without power for a decade”.
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