A Welsh former cabinet minister has become the third Tory MP to publicly switch his allegiance in the Tory leadership race from Rishi Sunak to Liz Truss. Alun Cairns, who served as Secretary of State for Wales from 2016 to 2019 under three consecutive Prime Ministers, said on Monday that he believes Ms Truss is the best candidate to "secure the Union" of the four UK nations.
He indicated that the Union would be more likely to break up under Mr Sunak, writing in The Mail: "At the outset of the campaign, I met Rishi Sunak to discuss the future of the Union and was content with his responses. I chose to support him. However, as the campaign has developed, the risks to our Union have become more apparent.
"There is a need to break out of the current orthodoxy. The future of our Union depends on it. For this reason, I have concluded that with the positive ambition for our country and imagination she has shown, alongside her strong track record as a reformer, Liz Truss is best placed to secure our Union."
