By Ben Kerrigan-
Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss traded blows during entertaining fierce exchanges as Rishi Sunak attacked her economic policies of the favourite Liz Truss in their first head-to-head TV debate.
In a debate that grew increasingly personal, the two Conservative leadership contenders differed widely over tax cuts, China and inflation, with the former chancellor Sunak accusing the foreign secretary of seeking “a short-term sugar rush” by cutting national insurance.
Calls from Tory grandees for the pair to end “blue on blue” hostilities, fell on deaf ears, as the pair pulled np pinches in their fight to dominate the fractious debate in their bid to become the next prime minister .
Truss accused Sunak of “scaremongering” and being part of “project fear” while Sunak countered by highlighting her vote for Remain.
Truss accused her former cabinet colleague of raising taxes to their highest level for 70 years.Truss further attacked Sunak over calls for a tougher stance on China, pointing out that the Treasury just last month was calling for closer bilateral and economic ties.
Sunak accused his opponent of making pronouncements about a “golden era” between China and the UK. “I think that was almost a decade ago,” the foreign secretary snapped back.
Mr Sunak said: “There was a time when Liz was talking about having a golden era of relationships with China and the mission there was talking about having deeper collaboration with things like food security and technology.
“But what we do need to do is acknowledge that China is a threat to our national security, it’s a threat to our economic security.”
He said that under his tenure as chancellor, the Government tabled the National Security Investment Bill, which gives the UK the power to “protect ourselves against countries like China who are trying to infiltrate our companies and steal our technology”.
Ms Truss interjected, saying: “Rishi, I challenged you on the debate last week.
“As recently as a month ago you were pushing for closer trade relationships with China.”
She accused Mr Sunak’s former department, the Treasury, of harbouring a desire for “closer economic relations” with China, while the Foreign Office has taken “the toughest stance” with the country including by “being clear that Taiwan should be able to defend itself”
Mr Sunak told Ms Truss her tax cut plan would “tip millions of people into misery” and cost the Conservatives the next election.
The foreign secretary and former chancellor, who until three weeks ago were in the same cabinet, talked over each other at times and shot angry glances across the stage at Stoke-on-Trent’s Victoria Hall.
Ms Truss insisted that under her plans the UK would start paying down the debt in three year’s time – and paying it back straight away as Mr Sunak wanted to do would push the UK into a recession.
Mr Sunak suggested her plans would lead to higher interest rates, but the foreign secretary dismiss this as “scaremongering” and “project fear” – an echo of the criticism aimed at the Remain campaign during Brexit referendum.
When Mr Sunak said he was “not going to apologise” for his private educational background at the fee-paying Winchester College, stating that his parents’ aspirational values were Conservative , he was applauded by the audience.
He praised Mr Johnson’s handling of Brexit and the pandemic but said he had quit as a matter of principle over the PM’s “conduct” and the fact that they had “very different views about the direction of travel on the economy”.
Ms Truss acknowledged the prime minister had made mistakes but said they were not “sufficient” enough for the Conservative Party to have “rejected him”.