Summary of the day …
- The battle to become the UK’s next prime minister descended into fierce clashes as Rishi Sunak launched repeated attacks on the economic policies of the favourite Liz Truss in their first head-to-head TV debate. The two Conservative leadership hopefuls traded blows 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. Truss accused her former colleague of raising taxes to their highest level for 70 years. The exchanges at the BBC debate followed a weekend of deeply personal attacks in the contest, including on-the-record criticisms singling out the former chancellor’s wealth and wardrobe, while Truss has faced claims of being economically illiterate and a former remainer. [More here]
- David Trimble, Northern Ireland’s inaugural first minister and a crucial unionist architect of the Good Friday agreement, has died aged 77. His death on Monday was announced by the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), the party he led into a historic power-sharing arrangement between nationalists and republicans in Northern Ireland. Lord Trimble was the first person to serve in the role of first minister, and won the Nobel peace prize, along with John Hume, leader of the nationalist SDLP party, for their part in negotiations for the Good Friday agreement. He was UUP leader between 1995 and 2005, accepting a life peerage in the House of Lords in 2006. [More here]
- Downing Street has had to deny that the prime minister, Boris Johnson, intends to cling on to power after the Telegraph published an “exclusive” in which Lord Cruddas said Johnson “does not want to resign” as prime minister and wishes he could “wipe away” his departure.
- Anger over the Partygate scandal has been reignited after Scotland Yard confirmed that it did not send questionnaires to Johnson before deciding against fining him for attending two Downing Street lockdown gatherings. Fines were issued to other attenders at the gatherings in 2020, including one at No 10 on 13 November, where the prime minister gave a leaving speech for his departing director of communications, Lee Cain, and another in the Cabinet Office on 17 December. [More here]
- Sunak has said he will stop unions “holding working people to ransom” if he becomes prime minister in response to the announcement that the Transport Salaried Staffs Association union (TSSA) will stage railway strikes on 18 and 20 August.
- Sunak has challenged Truss to agree to be interviewed by former GB News presenter Andrew Neil after it was confirmed that he will record an interview with Neil for broadcast on Friday.
- Downing Street said travel delays seen at Dover are not caused by Brexit. It said the problems were down to a combination of factors “including a shortage of French border control staff”. Experts disagree.
- Keir Starmer has given a speech in which he said promoting growth is now as important for Labour as redistribution, but confusion over the party’s position on the renationalisation of railways and utilities has lingered with several different briefings during the day.
- Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, has implicitly criticised the speech. In a series of tweets, Corbyn restated his call for the renationalisation of rail, energy, water and mail, saying Labour needed to offer a “bold alternative”. The Green party has also criticised Labour for abandoning its commitment to renationalising utilities as set out in the 2019 manifesto.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for the evening. Thank you for following our live coverage, and for all your comments this evening. The UK politics live blog will be back in the morning.
Updated
One of the more curious bits of tonight’s debate was when Liz Truss was directly questioned about saying that British workers are “among the worst idlers in the world” in a book, she for the first time appeared to claim that she hadn’t written that bit. She then said Dominic Raab wrote that chapter, and pointed out that he is supporting her rival for prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
This does not appear to have gone down brilliantly with Raab, who on BBC Newsnight this evening is criticising Truss for shifting her views on debt, as Lewis Goodall points out:
Dominic Raab: “We all took collective responsibility on the [Britannia Unchained] book…we all agreed…the chapter on debt, why it was so damaging for the economy, intergenerational unfairness…we were right then, it’s up to Liz to explain why she’s changed her view.” #newsnight
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) July 25, 2022
