Tom Tugendhat, the disadvantaged of the Conservative leadership race, advocated a “battle of ideas” rather than a “knife fight in a phone booth” when he launched his campaign.
Even before Friday’s televised debate, with poisonous newspaper conferences and vote-loan flight allegations, it seemed a remote prospect. And when the five contenders gathered at a venue in East London for the Channel 4 broadcast, the blades soon blinked.
Rishi Sunak humiliated Liz Truss for his promise of more than £ 30bn in immediate tax cuts and no funding. The Secretary of Foreign Affairs said he would pay them “by spreading the debt we accumulated during the Covid for a longer period.” The former chancellor told his former cabinet colleague, “There is no debt from Covid.