Liz Truss’s schools proposals ignore the needs of poor kids, the Lib Dems warned last night.
The Tory leadership favourite was rapped as she tried to outdo Rishi Sunak by releasing policies before ballot papers hit doormats today.
Ms Truss hopes to replace failing academies with free schools, raise maths and literacy standards and ensure A* A-level students are automatically invited to apply for Oxbridge.
Labour said her pitch to get education back on track is a “damning indictment of Governments she has been a part of”. The Lib Dems’ Munira Wilson said fall far short of giving kids the “opportunities and experiences they deserve after the consistent failings of the Department for Education”.
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak said he will cut the basic income tax rate from 20p in the pound to 16p – but only by 2028.
The former Chancellor was criticised for making another tax U-turn.
“It’s welcome Rishi has performed another U-turn on cutting tax, it’s only a shame he didn’t do this as Chancellor when he repeatedly raised taxes. Unfortunately it’s a case of ‘jam tomorrow’,” a source from Ms Truss’s campaign said.
The ex-Chancellor was wounded by more MPs backing rival Ms Truss over the weekend, NHS chiefs blasting his plan to fine patients £10 for missed appointments, and Nadine Dorries comparing him to Brutus stabbing Julius Caesar in the back.
As bookies gave Ms Truss a 90% chance of winning, one Sunak ally told the Times they were “fed up” and “waiting for the Truss-mobile to move in to No10” while another told the Mail on Sunday: “It’s over”.
But Mr Sunak - who admitted he was “playing catch-up” - fought back by visiting 10 Tory associations in the south of England over the weekend.
As a Savanta/ComRes poll of 511 Tory councillors put Truss and Sunak on 31% and 29%, a campaign spokeswoman added: “This contest is all to play for… The race has only just begun.”
Ms Truss added it was a “very, very close race” despite enjoying support “from right across all parts of the Conservative Party ”.
Both candidates unveiled a flurry of new policies as ballot papers to hit 160,000 members’ doormats between Monday and Friday this week.
In a frantic week the pair will face hustings in Exeter on Monday, Cardiff on Wednesday and Eastbourne on Friday - plus a head-to-head Sky News debate on Thursday.
As Mr Sunak made another tax U-turn, Ms Truss pledged to “unleash British food and farming” in order to improve the nation’s food security.
The Tory leadership hopeful said she would “remove onerous EU regulations and red tape” if she becomes prime minister, without going into much detail on which laws she would abolish.
