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."
Mr Cairns, born in Swansea, is the second holder of the Welsh secretary role to switch allegiances in the leadership race. Current incumbent Sir Robert Buckland also defected from the Sunak campaign to support Ms Truss on Friday, following former minister Chris Skidmore.
Both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss wrote opinion pieces exclusively for WalesOnline when they visited Cardiff for a leadership hustings on August 3. In her article, Ms Truss stated she had "banged the drum for Welsh enterprise" as Secretary of State for International Trade. She cited Budweiser's investment in its Magor brewery and promoting Welsh exports of lamb, fintech and aeroplane components.
She said: "I will level up Wales in a Conservative way by harnessing the power of free enterprise to drive job creation in the industries of the future. I will work with the Welsh Government and local communities to identify areas which are ripe for transformation as part of a new investment zone."
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak mentioned that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, his furlough scheme protected almost 600,000 jobs in Wales. He also mentioned the UK Government-backed loans and grants that supported Welsh businesses and insisted that "you can be patriotically Welsh and British at the same time."
He said: "To do all of this, we had to change our approach to Wales, and as Prime Minister I will build on that. We cannot operate a ‘devolve and forget’ mentality, operating as a funding mechanism for the Welsh Government and hoping they will fix issues on their own. Wales deserves better."
However, both candidates have been under pressure to explain how they will help with the spiralling cost of living crisis. The concept of offering direct support to struggling families has become the main point of contention in the contest - with Mr Sunak refusing to rule out "further direct support" in the winter and Ms Truss branding the idea as "giving out handouts."
A poll of Conservative Party members by the Observer put Liz Truss 22 points ahead of Rishi Sunak in the vote. However, both those who preferred Ms Truss and those who opted overwhelmingly indicated that they would prefer Boris Johnson had remained in charge.
The contenders’ approach to securing the Union will come under growing scrutiny, with the pair heading to Perth on Tuesday and Belfast on Wednesday for questioning by the party members who will select the winner.
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