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A summary of today's developments
- A YouGov poll of Conservative party members suggests Liz Truss is on course to beat Rishi Sunak by 62% to 38% in the contest to decide the next prime minister.
- Rishi Sunak says the Tories have to “make our Rwanda policy work”. He told LBC: “We do need to have control of our borders. When my grandparents came over, it was because the government decided they should come here. “At the same time we welcome the best and the brightest, we [need] to get a control of our borders. “The Rwanda policy gives us the opportunity to solve that.” The former chancellor also described his economic plan as “common sense Thatcherism” despite wanting to raise corporation tax for businesses with the exception of smaller firms.
- The UK’s Brexit divorce bill could soar to £42.5bn after the Treasury increased its estimate of the payments owed to the European Union by more than £5bn, PA Media reports.
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank published an assessment of the tax and spending policies of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. It says we know a lot about Sunak’s plans, because he was chancellor until very recently, but that Truss’s intentions are quite different, and less clear. It says that Truss’s plans ultimately imply public spending would be cut.
- Labour MP Stella Creasy has accused Liz Truss of wanting to take women “back to the 1950s” with her transferable tax allowance plan.
- Ministers will have a year to prepare before cross-examination at the UK’s Covid-19 public inquiry, its chair, Heather Hallett, announced, as she opened what is likely to be one of the broadest statutory investigations in the country’s history.
