Rishi Sunak’s expensive taste in clothes has been mocked by a party colleague in another bitter personal twist to the Tory leadership contest.
Nadine Dorries, the outspoken Culture Secretary and Boris Johnson loyalist, slated the millionaire former chancellor for wearing, on different occasions, a £3,500 suit and £490 Prada shoes.
Dorries, launched the morning attack on Sunak’s image ahead the first TV debate on Monday evening between the rivals for Tory crown.
READ MORE: Who is Liz Truss and will she be next PM?
Dorries, a supporter of leadership rival Liz Truss, said the Foreign Secretary Truss is more likely to be seen in a pair of £4.50 earrings from high street chain Claire’s.
. @trussliz will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire Accessories. Meanwhile…
Rishi visits Teeside in Prada shoes worth £450 and
sported £3,500 bespoke suit as he prepared for crunch leadership vote. https://t.co/1VO4xLwQ66— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries)
The tweet attack is the latest sign of the bitter, highly personal nature of the Tory leadership battle.
Sunak was seen wearing a Henry Herbert suit – worth a reported £3,500 – ahead of the vote which saw him and Truss selected by Tory MPs as the final two candidates to be the next Conservative Party leader and prime minister.
His choice of Prada shoes on a visit to a construction site in Redcar also caught Dorries’ attention.
The Culture Secretary said Truss “will be travelling the country wearing her earrings which cost circa £4.50 from Claire Accessories.
“Meanwhile… Rishi visits Teeside in Prada shoes worth £450 and sported £3,500 bespoke suit as he prepared for crunch leadership vote.”
The social media exchange immediately drew the rival camps into open warfare.
Guildford MP Angela Richardson, a supporter of Sunak, shot back: “FFS (for f***’s sake) Nadine! Muted.”
FFS Nadine! Muted. https://t.co/LqeAMy8TzT
— Angela Richardson MP (@AJRichardsonMP) July 25, 2022
Dorries’ comments prompted veterans minister Johnny Mercer to describe the contest as “embarrassing”.
He wrote: “Probably worth remembering that on current trajectory we are out of power in two years time.
“The puerile nature of this leadership contest is embarrassing. Time to raise the standards.”
The two leadership contenders will go head-to-head in a live debate on the BBC on Monday night at 9pm, the first one since they made it to the final run-off.
The last time they met was in the ITV leadership debate, which was held before Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat were eliminated.
The pair clashed bitterly over the economy, as well as each other’s social backgrounds, which led to them pulling out of a planned Sky News debate because of the damage they were doing to the Tory party.
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