Conservative party leadership election 2022

[rebbonk]

Today's scenario, the burning question is where will Tugenhat's supports turn now?...


Source: https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-conservative-leader


Source: https://order-order.com/

[dutchman]

Badenoch is in the perfect position to do a deal with Truss!

[rebbonk]

Badenoch is in the perfect position to do a deal with Truss!

She's one sharp lady. My bet is still that she'll be the first coloured PM in the UK as long as she doesn't blot her copybook. I'm not sure that doing a deal with Truss would be in her best long-term interests?

Whilst I really don't think she'll be successful in this attempt, I'm tempted to speculate a few bob with SBK where I can get odds of 33/2 of her winning this contest or 27/2 on her being the next UK PM.

[dutchman]

Liz Truss takes step closer to claiming Tory crown as rivals lose momentum



Liz Truss’s hopes of replacing Boris Johnson as prime minister have taken a big step forward as rival Penny Mordaunt’s leadership bid stalled and a poll suggested the foreign secretary would comfortably beat MPs’ favourite Rishi Sunak in the final ballot of Tory members.

Both the Truss and Mordaunt camps were love-bombing defeated contender Kemi Badenoch, whose elimination in the fourth round of voting put her in the position of kingmaker.

And all three remaining contenders were battling for the votes of Ms Badenoch’s 59 supporters, who now have the power to decide who joins Mr Sunak in the final battle for the Tory leadership, which will be decided by party members on 5 September.

The 42-year-old former equalities minister herself looks set for a significant role in government whoever becomes PM, with rival camps hailing her “fantastic campaign” and “fresh thinking”.

Mr Sunak’s tally of 118 votes left him tantalisingly close to the 120 threshold to guarantee a place on the final shortlist of two to be announced at 4pm on Wednesday.

But his prospects in the members’ ballot looked far gloomier, with a YouGov poll of 725 Tory activists finding he would be comprehensively beaten by either Ms Truss or Ms Mordaunt.

However, in a sign that Ms Mordaunt’s campaign may be losing momentum, her margin of victory over the former chancellor was significantly reduced to 14 points, compared to 39 a week ago, while Ms Truss’s lead over Sunak extended from 14 to 19 points over the same period.

Despite holding onto her second place with 92 MPs’ votes in Tuesday’s ballot, the trade minister did not enjoy the expected boost – on which she had been relying to maintain momentum in her campaign – from the 31 backers of One Nation candidate Tom Tugendhat, who was knocked out on Monday.

With Mr Tugendhat campaign manager Anne Marie Trevelyan turning publicly on her Department for International Trade colleague – who she accused of skipping work to concentrate on her leadership ambitions – and endorsing Ms Truss, Ms Mordaunt picked up just 10 votes, compared to the 15 gained by the foreign secretary to reach a tally of 86.

Having won the “fight on the right”, Ms Truss was hopeful of scooping enough of Badenoch’s supporters to overhaul Ms Mordaunt on Wednesday and secure her place in the final face-off with Mr Sunak.

In an appeal to the 58 MPs now in play, a spokesperson for Ms Truss said: “Kemi Badenoch has run a fantastic campaign and contributed enormously to the battle of ideas throughout this contest. Now is the time for the party to unite behind a candidate who will govern in a Conservative way and who has shown she can deliver time and again.“

[rebbonk]

State of affairs as of Tuesday evening...


Source: https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-conservative-leader


Source: https://order-order.com/

[rebbonk]

State of play as we go for the final run-off...


Source: https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-conservative-leader


Source: https://order-order.com/

However, what I find intriguing is this, betting on the next UK PM, rather than the next Tory leader...


Source: https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-prime-minister

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Rishi Sunak accused of ‘screeching U-turn’ on tax cuts



Rishi Sunak was on Tuesday night accused of a “screeching U-turn” on tax cuts as he vowed to scrap VAT on energy bills for a year if he becomes prime minister.

In an apparent climbdown, the Tory leadership contender promised to introduce the “temporary and targeted” measure to save £160 on the average household bill as energy prices soar this winter.

His announcement came after polls of party members showed he was trailing leadership rival Liz Truss, who has run on an unashamedly tax-cutting agenda.

Mr Sunak has spent the early part of the campaign claiming his rival’s plans to cut National Insurance and scrap planned corporation tax increases would stoke inflation.

A source close to the Truss campaign said: “It’s good that Rishi has finally woken up and decided to offer something to people struggling with the rising cost of living.

“However, this feels like a screeching U-turn from someone who has spent the last few weeks of the leadership campaign branding everyone else’s tax cuts immoral and fairytales.”

The Foreign Secretary’s allies also pointed out that as recently as February, when he was still chancellor, Mr Sunak had rejected calls to cut VAT on energy bills, saying it would “disproportionately benefit wealthier households”.

Ms Truss has not committed to cutting VAT on energy bills, instead focusing on suspending the green levy. The Sunak camp denied there had been a U-turn, adding that the tax cut was “a tool that was always in our arsenal”.

“We didn’t use it back in spring because the size of the jump of the bills was way bigger, and it wouldn’t have touched the sides,” a source said. “This is a response to latest estimates that suggest the rise might be £100-200 more than anticipated.”

Under a new plan to tackle the cost of living crisis, Mr Sunak said he would scrap VAT for domestic energy users for a year from October, at a cost to the Treasury of £4.3 billion.

He also unveiled plans to reduce the country’s reliance on French ports in order to tackle supply chain problems that push up prices, and tighten benefits rules to get more people off welfare and into work.

His tax-cutting policy came after two polls indicated that he had lost Monday night’s head-to-head debate on the BBC, with one showing 50 per cent of Tory members thought Ms Truss won compared with 39 per cent backing the ex-chancellor.

[dutchman]

“We didn’t use it back in spring because the size of the jump of the bills was way bigger, and it wouldn’t have touched the sides,” a source said. “This is a response to latest estimates that suggest the rise might be £100-200 more than anticipated.”

What self-contradictory nonsense, he has completely lost the plot!