Tory leadership contenders are now battling to out-Tory each other in a move that has grave implications for those on the left.
Tax and spending cuts while public services reel from the impact of Covid have loomed large as candidates battle for MP backers.
Right-wingers including Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Liz Truss and Nadhim Zahawi all want to prioritise tax cuts in their fight.
And sensitive issues such as trans and women's rights have been turned into "culture war" spats where the candidates are making their stances clear.
Meanwhile there's barely any mention of the environment, the war in Ukraine or more help for the poorest in society.
The field of candidates is being whittled down, with those unable to muster 20 MP supporters not making the ballot.
Those who fail to get 30 votes in the first round are also eliminated. That's why the promises now are so eye-catching.
We look at what the different Tory leadership candidates are setting out in their stalls.
Rishi Sunak - 88 votes in first round
TAX: In a leadership race centred on the economy, Mr Sunak has had the most experience as Chancellor in turbulent times. But he's not offering big tax cuts like others. Instead the former Chancellor has positioned himself as someone who is able to make difficult decisions, and has already warned Brits not to believe their “fairytale” promises of higher spending and lower taxes. Mr Sunak is not prepared to cut taxes unless the economy improves, or Tories can find some savings elsewhere. He says: “Once we have gripped inflation, I will get the tax burden down. It is a question of ‘when’, not ‘if’.”
CUTS: See above - but he backed Boris Johnson's plans to slash a fifth of civil service jobs by the end of 2025.
CULTURE WARS: He is prepared to "protect women's rights", ensuring all public services are family-friendly to ease the disproportionate burden of family life on women. He is also keen to ensure kids to have a childhood with sex education being sensitive and age-appropriate. Told a private hustings of Tory MPs he'd be open to scrapping the BBC licence fee.
HUMAN RIGHTS : Before quitting as Chancellor, Mr Sunak said "all options are on the table" when asked if the UK will withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights. He also backs Priti Patel's controversial Rwanda policy.
ENVIRONMENT: Yet to announce detailed environmental plans but while in government he backed Boris Johnson's push towards Net Zero emissions by 2050.
BREXIT: Yet to announce detailed plans but while in government he backed the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
Liz Truss - 50 votes in first round
TAX: The Foreign Secretary has long been painting herself as Margaret Thatcher 2.0. She has pledged to “start cutting taxes from day one”, reversing April’s rise in National Insurance and promising to keep “corporation tax competitive”. Allies have said her economic vision is also based on high defence spending.
CUTS: Has talked about announcing a spending review quickly on entering No10, and she’d put the Covid debt on a longer term footing, but team not getting into further details.
CULTURE WARS: Ms Truss sits on the party's libertarian wing, but has long been criticised by pro-LGBTQ+ advocates for failing to create reforms to the Gender Recognition Act. After becoming women and equalities minister in 2019, she planned to move away from the "identity politics" of the left, and suggested her department should be called 'Department of Freedom'.
ENVIRONMENT: Has not yet elaborated on her plans, but while in government she backed the PM's push to reach Net Zero emissions by 2050.
BREXIT: Although she campaigned to remain in the EU, Ms Truss has successfully managed to gain recognition within Brexit circles. Allies believe she understands the details on Brexit and without a doubt she will vow to push the Northern Ireland protocol through, even though it has been part of her ministerial brief since December.
HUMAN RIGHTS: Has not yet elaborated on her plans, but while in government she backed the PM's policy of deporting some migrants to Rwanda. In a hustings with Tory MPs, she backed leaving the European Convention on Human Rights as a last resort.
Penny Mordaunt - 67 votes in first round
TAX: The first female defence secretary has so far pledged a 50% cut in VAT on fuel. But she says only “looking at tax rises or cuts is a vast oversimplification of our economic challenges".
CUTS: Little detail so far, but she is expected to lay out more detailed policy as she makes it through initial rounds of voting. She insists debt as a percentage of GDP should fall over time and promises to roll out “development corporations" for local jobs.
CULTURE WARS: The former women and equalities minister will find herself in muddy waters over the debate on transgender rights. She has previously publicly supported trans rights. In 2018 she said at the Commons despatch box "trans women are women". But Ms Mordaunt insists she is not "woke" and vows to continue to fight for women's rights. Ms Mordaunt believes there is a difference between biological women and those who are legally female.
ENVIRONMENT: We have asked for any new policies or clarifications.
BREXIT: Ms Mordaunt backed the PM's bid to get Brexit done and played a prominent role in the Leave campaign.
Suella Braverman - 32 votes in first round
TAX : Has said “we need to deliver some proper tax cuts”, including axing VAT from energy bills and reducing corporation tax.
CUTS: Says “we need to shrink the size of the state and cut government spending” and claims too many people are on welfare with rhetoric critics have branded divisive. Yet she claims her plans wouldn’t slash public services saying: “It’s about spending money more smartly and I think we waste too much money.”
CULTURE WARS : Said “we need to get rid of all of this woke rubbish”, including gender inclusive language. She said a Bill that allowed her to take maternity leave was delayed due to “an indulgence of extremism” after the word “mother” was replaced by “pregnant person”. She also told Tory MPs: “Don’t vote for me because I’m a woman. Don’t vote for me because I’m brown. Vote for me because I love this country and would do anything for it.”
ENVIRONMENT : She's called for Net Zero commitments to be suspended in light of the energy crisis.
BREXIT: Says she would amend the ‘law-breaking’ Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to be even more hardline, setting VAT, excise, and the regulation of medicines directly under UK law from day one.
HUMAN RIGHTS: She wants to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, a more hardline stance than the current government, and backs the Rwanda asylum policy.
Tom Tugendhat - 37 votes in first round
TAX : Says he would have a ten-year economic plan that could mean cancelling the National Insurance hike and cutting fuel duty by 10p a litre. He also says “I would certainly be looking at it” cuts to Corporation Tax plus research and development tax breaks. But he "will refuse to set out a shopping list of tax cuts without first understanding how they would form part of a coherent and long term plan".
CUTS: Again declines to comment on details but says a 10-year plan would “allow you to balance across the economy and across time so that what you actually get is a growing economy, a stronger economy.”
CULTURE WARS : Says we need to “move on” because “it’s really easy to make division where we need unity; it’s really easy to try and divide communities.” On trans rights, says: “Look, a woman is an adult human female but that doesn’t mean in any way that transwomen have any less respect or any fewer rights. And the idea that you can answer this question with a sledgehammer when really what you are talking about is a very subtle understanding of people’s rights, people’s dignities and the respect they need for each other, I’m afraid is not true.”
ENVIRONMENT : We’ve not immediately found announcements on this.
BREXIT: Says “we need to deliver” the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill despite controversy, adding: “What you need is you need to have the leverage and you need to have the trust.” In what he said was one of the benefits of Brexit, the EU requirement for insurance firms to hold substantial cash reserves to cover potential losses would be eased - which he claimed would free up around £100 billion for investment.
Kemi Badenoch - 40 votes in first round
TAX : Ms Badenoch wants to introduce a micro-state with low taxes but added: "I will not enter into a tax bidding war and say my tax cuts are bigger than yours. The dividing line in this race is not tax cuts, it's judgment."
CUTS: She plans to keep spending tight, promising “limits on government spending” to fund tax cuts instead. She also backs means-testing pensioners' Winter Fuel Payment and stopping cost-of-living payments. “What I’m not going to do is come out with lots of micro policies about giving people £50 cash here or a rebate there," she said. “I think it’s very inefficient - there’s a lot of dead weight in how we run government.”
CULTURE WARS: Ms Badenoch kicked off her leadership campaign focused on culture wars - setting herself out as an anti-woke candidate. She has compared "identity politics" to coercive control and slams any suggestion that the UK is oppressive to minorities. She added "some universities spend more time indoctrinating social attitudes instead of teaching lifelong skills or how to solve problems".
ENVIRONMENT: She blasted the current net-zero policy as "unilateral economic disarmament" due to being pursued "without thought for industries in the poorer areas" of the UK.
BREXIT: Touted as a rising star within the Tory party, she backed Brexit in 2016.
HUMAN RIGHTS: She devoted much of her 11-minute launch speech to ‘culture war’ spats, vowing to “discard the priorities of Twitter” and “the Ben and Jerry’s tendency” for firms to put “social justice” over profit. Ms Badenoch demanded police stop “worrying about hurt feelings online” and said “tick box exercises in sustainability, diversity and equality” were not the “core mission”.
Out of the race
Grant Shapps - dropped out
TAX: The Transport Secretary has said he will introduce an "emergency budget" within days of taking office and scrap the planned rise in corporation tax.
CUTS: Mr Shapps said that he would pay for the tax cuts by slashing spending - but has yet to provide a detailed plan on what will be hit.
CULTURE WARS: He seemed pretty keen to swerve awkward questions on gender issues over the weekend, telling Sky News: “People should be able to get on and live their lives." He added that the country is more interested in "bread and butter issues" such as the cost of living.
ENVIRONMENT: Mr Shapps has been a vocal critic of environmental activists who caused widespread disruption over the past year, branding them "anarchists".
BREXIT: The Transport Secretary described himself as a "Brexit moderate who voted Remain" back in 2018 - but said that following the leave vote "we must make it work for us".
HUMAN RIGHTS: As a member of the cabinet, Mr Shapps has not publicly rocked the boat over the controversial Rwanda deportation, but is yet to clarify whether he would proceed with it if he becomes leader.
Sajid Javid - did not make it onto the ballot
TAX : Mr Javid says he plans to slash £39bn in taxes each year. The planned 1p income tax would be brought forward to next year under his leadership. He would axe the National Insurance rise from 2023, scrap plans to hike corporation tax, announce a £5bn package to help with energy bills, and cut fuel duty by 10p a litre.
CUTS: The former Chancellor said he plans to unleash an efficiency savings programme that would see one per cent cut from all Whitehall spending - including the NHS.
CULTURE WARS: Mr Javid rubbished comments by Stormzy in 2019, when the rapper said the UK was a racist country. The then-Chancellor branded the comment "100% wrong" on Twitter, adding: "Britain is the most successful multiracial democracy in the world, and one of the most welcoming and tolerant."
ENVIRONMENT : Mr Javid says he will keep to the Government's commitment to decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy in its Net Zero by 2050 pledge. But he says “we should minimise the costs of transition to Net Zero”.
BREXIT: Mr Javid voted for the UK to remain in the EU, but said he was doing so with "little enthusiasm".
HUMAN RIGHTS: Mr Javid has vowed to continue with the controversial Rwanda deportations. He previously came under fire as Home Secretary after controversially ruling that former ISIS bride Shamima Begum should be stripped of her British citizenship when she said she wanted to return to the UK.
Rehman Chishti - did not make it onto the ballot
Mr Chishti announced his run for Prime Minister was over before it got going after failing to secure enough support.
Nadhim Zahawi - 25 votes in first round
TAX: The newly-appointed Chancellor has pledged to cut corporation tax, income tax and business rates. Income tax would fall to 19p next year and 18p in 2024, he claims. He'd axe VAT on energy bills and scrap a planned corporation tax rise.
CUTS: In a vague explanation on how he will fund his tax plans, Mr Zahawi said he will make every Government department to slash running costs by 20% in order to fund tax cuts - even the health service.
CULTURE WARS : Was criticised by activists after he spoke in favour of a philosophy professor who quit her post at the University of Sussex after being accused of transphobia. He was targeted by protesters earlier this year after saying it was "unacceptable that a scholar of her calibre should be hounded out of university". He defined a woman as an "adult human female" and said pupils shouldn't be taught about trans issues without their parents knowing.
ENVIRONMENT : Former oil executive Mr Zahawi has a long record for voting against green legislation, but during his stint as Education Secretary spearheaded a drive to include climate change as a key tenet of the school curriculum.
BREXIT: Brexiteer will talk up the possibilities leaving the EU will provide in his campaign, telling voters it has made the UK a "free nation".
HUMAN RIGHTS: Mr Zahawi has recently been a backer of the government's controversial Rwanda deportation programme, saying those crossing the Channel in boats were "choosing to be putting their lives at risk and be exploited by criminals". He did not rule out taking the UK out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Jeremy Hunt - 18 votes in first round
TAX : Would slash corporation tax from 19% to 15% and cancel next year’s planned rise to 25% for some profits. But he would keep the National Insurance hike to fund the NHS and says “I am not promising some of the tax cuts that other people have promised.”
CUTS: Declined to say how his plans could translate into cuts, but says debt should be falling as a percentage of GDP to “reduce the burden on future generations”. Says defence spending must reach 3% of GDP by 2028.
CULTURE WARS : On trans rights, said “I think we have to deal with this issue with a great deal of compassion but biological trumps, we need to be clear about that. The broader point that I would make about woke issues is that if we can as a mature democracy have a sensible tolerant debate about these things.”
ENVIRONMENT : His team say he would stick to commitments to reach Net Zero emissions by 2050.
BREXIT: Former Remainer says the government now need to make Brexit “a terrific success so use our Brexit freedoms to really turbocharge economic growth”.
HUMAN RIGHTS: He says he would keep the Rwanda asylum policy “but we’ve got to make it work and I’m not convinced it is working at the moment”. He adds: “If we want to become a humane country that offers a safe haven for people who genuinely need asylum, then we need to find legal safe routes for people to come here and not a mad dash for people to put their lives in the hands of people smugglers and try and get across the Channel.”
