Race to Downing Street | Already favorite, Liz Truss receives significant support

(London) The head of diplomacy Liz Truss scored again on Monday to succeed Boris Johnson in Downing Street, garnering strong support as members of the British Conservative Party begin to vote to choose their new leader.

After a very open start to the campaign and a series of votes reserved for party MPs alone to select the two finalists, the suspense seems to have died down.

Favorite candidate of majority MPs, ex-finance minister Rishi Sunak, 42, praised for his action during the COVID-19 pandemic, is significantly less popular with the party base to become the next head of government .

With favorable polls after the first televised duels having opposed Mr. Sunak, Liz Truss, 47, who promises massive tax cuts, sees the rallies multiply.

On the occasion of the launch of a great oral with the two candidates organized in Exeter (south-west) on Monday, the former candidate Penny Mordaunt, who had finished third in the race for Downing Street after the vote of the deputies , came out of her reserve to support the head of diplomacy.

Refusing to be a “weather vane”, she said she had to make a “difficult” choice. “I like both candidates,” but “I’ve seen enough to know who the person I’m going to believe is. And that’s Liz Truss.”

Earlier in the day, it was the current finance minister Nadhim Zahawi who declared himself in favor of M^me Truss, saying in the Daily Telegraph that she would “overturn worn-out economic orthodoxy and run our economy in a conservative way”.

M^me Truss also counts former Northern Ireland minister Brandon Lewis, unsuccessful party leader MP Tom Tugendhat and highly respected defense minister Ben Wallace among his backers.

Start of voting

The members of the party in power for 12 years, whose exact number remains confidential but which is estimated at nearly 200,000 (less than 0.3% of the population), have until September 2 to express their choice during a postal vote.

The ballots must arrive by the end of the week among the members, a rather old, male and white electorate. The result is expected on September 5.

If she seems largely in the lead, “the race is very, very tight and I fight for every voice”, assured Liz Truss this weekend.

While she had seemed rigid and uncomfortable in some debates in the early stages of the competition, she once again seemed more relaxed and confident.

Thursday, she had already emerged strengthened from the first of the 12 major orals against the militants.

At Exeter, she said she intended to draw inspiration from “the spirit of the Lionesses”, an allusion to the England women’s football team crowned European champions on Sunday.

“Stabbed in the back”

For his part, Rishi Sunak has a string of disappointments. A time favorite, some Tories accuse him of having “stabbed in the back” the Prime Minister, his resignation in early July having contributed to precipitating the fall of Boris Johnson after months of scandals.

Since the start of the internal campaign, the two finalists have mainly opposed each other on taxation.

Liz Truss promises tax cuts without delay, announcing that she would reverse an increase in social security contributions introduced in the spring to finance the public health system, which has been strained by the pandemic.

“I think Finances have to change,” she said Monday evening, saying she was ready to “beat the eggs so that the omelet takes”.

Rishi Sunak meanwhile warns against “fairy tales” and warns that it is necessary to wait until inflation, at its highest level for 40 years, fades before considering a reduction in the tax burden.

“Yes, of course I want to contain inflation, it’s the sensible thing to do as a Conservative,” he told Conservative voters who came to listen to him.

This very rich ex-banker, however, initiated a change by promising a reduction in VAT on energy to relieve households and a 20% drop in income tax within seven years, immediately mocked by the Truss camp , retorting that it would lower taxes for its part in seven weeks.