Lewis, who is backing Truss’ leadership bid, said there was “never any danger to brilliant public sector pay” after the Foreign Secretary suffered a humiliating blow when she was forced to overturn civil service pay following a backlash from within in her own party. Asked if her campaign was abandoning a key policy to cut £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London, she told Times Radio: You do see during leadership campaigns obviously people coming up with ideas – we’ve seen Rishi Sunak’s team have published eight or nine different things that have changed. The reality of yesterday is that what Liz was describing was part of a package to deal with Whitehall’s waste. We all want this to be addressed, it’s part of a program of work actually to get the public service – it’s grown by around 91,000 in just the last few years, back to levels where we’re using taxpayers’ money effectively and efficiently. He added: What Liz was looking at yesterday and what the campaign was looking at is what do you do on the new contracts as people come in, but look, she made it very clear yesterday, we’re not moving forward with that, that’s not something that just happens and we obviously appreciate all the work – and there has never been any risk to the remuneration of the brilliant public sector that has done so well during the Covid period and the challenges we have seen over the last two years. Lewis’ comments came as Truss and her rival Rishi Sunak prepare to face party members in a third set of Tory leadership later today. A new YouGov poll shows almost nine in 10 Tories have made up their minds about who they will support, with 60% rising for Truss and just 26% for Sunak despite a difficult week for Truss. Tonight’s event in Cardiff marks the first time anyone has visited Wales since the competition began. Conservative members due to receive their postal ballots have been told the papers will arrive later than planned due to security concerns and may not arrive until August 11. An email on Tuesday night said the documents, due to be sent from Monday to around 160,000 Tory members, said: Your ballot is now on its way – but it will arrive with you a little later than originally thought. Please don’t worry. This is because we took some time to add some extra security to our ballot process, which delayed us slightly. The announcement of the results of the leadership contest is expected on September 5, which is expected to remain the same despite the delay. Here is the agenda for the day. 10am: Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar will hold a press conference to mark the start of the second paper on Scottish and UK reform. Morning: Boris Johnson starts his summer vacation today. 19:00: Tory leadership visits Cardiff. I’ll be covering Andrew Sparrow today. Drop me a line if you have any questions or think I missed something. My email is [email protected] or you can reach me on Twitter. Updated at 10.16 BST Important events BETA filters Key Facts (2) Liz Truss (4) Brandon Lewis (3) Rishi Sunak (3) Boris Johnson (2) Andrew Sparrow (1)
Liz Truss has a 34-point lead over Rishi Sunak, according to a poll
A YouGov poll for The Times published last night showed Liz Truss with a 34-point lead over her rival Rishi Sunak among Conservative party members. The poll, which the newspaper said was conducted over the past five days, showed 60% support for Truss to 26% for Sunak, with the remainder undecided. Almost nine out of 10 Tory members have already decided who they will vote for, it said. The poll results indicate a significant widening of the Tras gap. The latest YouGov poll, taken on July 20, had support for Truss at 49% to 31% for Sunak. Truss is ahead of Sunak in all age groups, in different parts of the country and among men and women. The poll also showed that Boris Johnson would “handily beat” both Truss and Sunak if they were on the ballot, with widespread displeasure among Conservative party members at the way he was ousted from office. Updated at 10.20 BST Asked whether Truss believed Taiwan should be provided with defensive weapons, former Conservative Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said: I think one of the things we’ve seen with Ukraine is the fact that it’s important to support sovereign democracies, that’s something we have to do. I think it is right that we in the West remain firm and strong in the face of some of the pressures that we see from (Vladimir) Putin’s regime, but also some of the challenges that we face from China and, as someone who was the Minister of Security in the past, I’ve seen the growth of China’s economic power (and pressure) – it’s something to be aware of. As we previously reported, Tory former Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis spent the morning trying to defend Liz Truss a day after she was forced to abandon the cornerstone of her plan for a “war on Whitehall’s waste” following a backlash inside her. own party. Lewis was speaking in the morning round of interviews, where he claimed Truss “made it very clear yesterday that this is not a policy being promoted”. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: We saw a number of people yesterday stretching the numbers, talking about pay cuts for various people that were never the outline of the policy, and what Liz was looking at was part of a wider package. Obviously what we see during these campaigns is people setting policies. Obviously we’ve seen Rishi (Sunak) float ideas and then change about eight or nine times in the last couple of weeks. He added: What Liz described yesterday is the bigger package, the issue of dealing with waste in Whitehall… cutting the public service, the 91,000 increase we’ve seen in the last period and making sure that the money that’s being spent, the people’s money taxpayers are spent on frontline services. But it was never about cutting the pay of public sector workers who have been so brilliant through Covid and Labor in recent years. He also said: The wording where it is important is the word ‘if’, that was not something that was ever proposed… Liz made it very clear yesterday that this is not a policy that is being promoted. Lewis was also asked about relations with Scotland after the Tory leadership hopeful described Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon as a “caretaker”. Truss “has tremendous credentials” on the issue of keeping the Union together, Lewis told Sky News. He added: We had a referendum, now we’re all a few years older, but there hasn’t been a generational change yet, and that was always clear, and the SNP was, that it was once in a generation. That decision has been made. What we should all be focusing on, including the SNP, is how we improve the lives of people in Scotland. They are failing them in education, I would say health services, and other sectors of the economy as well. What Liz wants to do is to ensure that everyone across the UK and in every part of the UK has better educational opportunities to participate in a better and stronger economy in the future. Updated at 10.26 BST
Lewis: ‘never the case’ that Truss intended to cut public sector pay
Good morning. Conservative former Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has sought to defend Liz Truss, saying it was “never the case” that the Tory leadership candidate planned to cut public sector pay. Lewis, who is backing Truss’ leadership bid, said there was “never any danger to brilliant public sector pay” after the Foreign Secretary suffered a humiliating blow when she was forced to overturn civil service pay following a backlash from within in her own party. Asked if her campaign was abandoning a key policy to cut £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London, she told Times Radio: You do see during leadership campaigns obviously people coming up with ideas – we’ve seen Rishi Sunak’s team have published eight or nine different things that have changed. The reality of yesterday is that what Liz was describing was part of a package to deal with Whitehall’s waste. We all want this to be addressed, it’s part of a program of work actually to get the public service – it’s grown by around 91,000 in just the last few years, back to levels where we’re using taxpayers’ money effectively and efficiently. He added: What Liz was looking at yesterday and what the campaign was looking at is what do you do on the new contracts as people come in, but look, she made it very clear yesterday, we’re not moving forward with that, that’s not something that just happens and we obviously appreciate all the work – and there has never been any risk to the remuneration of the brilliant public sector that has done so well during the Covid period and the challenges we have seen over the last two years. Lewis’ comments came as Truss and her rival Rishi Sunak prepare to face party members in a third set of Tory leadership later today. A new YouGov poll shows almost nine in 10 Tories have made up their minds about who they will support, with 60% rising for Truss and just 26% for Sunak despite a difficult week for Truss. Tonight’s event in Cardiff marks the first time anyone has visited Wales since the competition began. Conservative members due to receive their postal ballots have been told the papers will arrive later than…