The final two Tory leadership candidates have been engaged in bitter clashes ahead of their live TV debate on Monday.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak are set to battle it out in their first head-to-head TV debate on the BBC on Monday evening after a weekend that saw both sides trade increasingly personal attacks. Sunak laid out his plan to tackle illegal immigration on Sunday, saying the issue is his “priority” as he seeks to win over the Tory members who will decide the next Conservative leader and Prime Minister.
Speaking to how he plans to fix the current “broken” system, he offered a 10-point plan that included creating an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted into the UK each year, and narrowing the definition of who qualifies for asylum compared to that from the European Convention on Human Rights. This comes as a report by the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration criticised the Home Office’s “poor” response to illegal migration as “ineffective and inefficient.”
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Sunak’s proposals were criticised by Truss allies, who argued it was unclear how the refugee quota would work and suggested some of his plans amounted to a “rebrand.”
The Truss camp also questioned a suggestion from Mr Sunak that illegal migrants could be held on cruise ships, something his opponents suggested would amount to arbitrary detention and a breach of both domestic and international law. Sunak sought to defend his proposals on Sunday afternoon, telling the BBC “no options should be off the table” when tackling illegal migration, but he was unable to give a clear assurance that his policy proposals would be legal.
He said: “What we need to do is be very honest about the challenges that the ECHR, these European laws, have on our ability to grapple with this problem.”
The Truss campaign had said as Prime Minister she would increase the UK’s frontline Border Force by 20% and double the Border Force Maritime staffing levels, with Truss claiming that her plan to tackle illegal migration would be given a strong legal foundation by the new UK Bill of Rights. Elsewhere, Truss allies were quick to lash out at their opponent over his claim China represents the “biggest-long term threat to Britain”.
In a hardening of tone against the Asian country, Sunak promised to close all 30 of the country’s Confucius Institutes in the UK. Funded by the Chinese Government, these are presented as culture and language centres but critics have labelled them propaganda tools amid worsening relations between the West and China.
Mr Sunak accused China of “stealing our technology and infiltrating our universities” and pledged to work with US President Joe Biden to stand up to China at home and abroad. But his claims were met with scepticism by Truss supporters, with former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith criticising the “surprising” announcement.
Sir Iain, the co-chairman of the inter-parliamentary alliance on China, said: “Over the last two years, the Treasury has pushed hard for an economic deal with China. This is despite China sanctioning myself and four UK parliamentarians.
“Despite brutally cracking down on peaceful democracy campaigners in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan, illegally occupying the South China Sea, committing genocide on the Uyghurs and increasing its influence in our universities. After such a litany, I have one simple question, where have you been over the last two years?”
A spokesperson for Ms Truss said: “Liz has strengthened Britain’s position on China since becoming Foreign Secretary and helped lead the international response to increased Chinese aggression. This will only continue when she becomes prime minister and seeks to expand her network of liberty around the world.”
On tax, Truss unveiled her plans to boost UK growth rates with “full-fat freeports,” a move that may be seen as a bid to steal a march on Mr Sunak, who has been an advocate of free ports since his days as a backbench MP. Pitched as the cornerstone of her tax-cutting economic vision, the Truss campaign said her plans would see brownfield sites – vacant or derelict pieces of land – and other locations turned into “investment zones.”
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will use a speech in Liverpool on Monday to pitch his party’s vision of “growth, growth, growth.” In the speech, he is expected to predict more “Thatcherite cosplay” from the Tory hopefuls when they clash on the BBC on Monday in the first of three hustings over the next few days.
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