British rural voters ‘ignored’ by Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak

Telecoms engineer working in a Somerset village. In the UK access to broadband in rural areas lags behind the provision in towns. Photograph: Richard Wayman/Alamy

Neither of the candidates for leadership of the Conservative party has made a convincing pitch to rural voters, despite that demographic being one of the biggest sources of Tory power, the head of the UK’s biggest rural business organisation said.

Mark Tufnell, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), which represents about 30,000 landowners and rural businesses, said Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had done too little to show how they would boost the countryside economy and deal with pressing concerns such as planning, rural broadband, and farm support.