Rishi Sunak is facing a concerted effort by allies of Boris Johnson to undermine his attempts to become chancellor, reports suggest.
The former chancellor is set to launch his bid to become prime minister on Tuesday with a pledge to cut taxes – but only once inflation has been brought back under control.
Sunak – who has the most declarations of support so far – has been alone among the contenders to succeed Boris Johnson in not promising immediate tax cuts if he wins, as it would in effect be a criticism of his own policies when in charge of the Treasury.
And he is facing fresh condemnation from those close to the ousted PM. They believe Sunak’s announcement last week that he was quitting helped trigger the slew of resignations which forced Johnson to admit his time was up.
Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has described him scathingly as the “much-lamented socialist chancellor” who had put up taxes while failing to curb inflation.
The Times reported that Rees-Mogg along with two other close allies of Johnson – culture secretary Nadine Dorries and education secretary James Cleverly – are set to declare their support for foreign secretary Liz Truss.
The newspaper reported Cleverly said Sunak was a “spokesperson for Treasury officials” by increasing taxes.
“We have pursued an economic policy which a lot of people would find harder to differentiate from what a Labour government would do,” Cleverly is reported to have said. “We need to make it clear that you can’t keep putting up taxes to solve every challenge, you need to unlock economic growth.”
He also accused Sunak of “plotting” to oust Johnson.
Meanwhile an “ally” of Truss told the Daily Mail that the right of the Tory party risks handing Sunak the job unless it unites behind her.
They said: “Liz is the only one who can keep the PM’s 2019 coalition together, who will take us back to properly Conservative principles on the economy and who has the experience to hit the ground running.
“But there is a real concern that if the Right splinters then Rishi and his supporters will be able to manipulate the contest and ensure that he faces someone to the Left of him in the final two.”
Nominations for the election open and close on Tuesday, with candidates requiring the support of 20 fellow MPs to make it onto the ballot – a hurdle some of the 11 hoping to stand may struggle to overcome.
Under the timetable set out by Sir Graham Brady, the first ballot of MPs will take place on Wednesday, with candidates failing to get 30 votes being eliminated, with a second expected on Thursday.
The process is then likely to continue into next week, with candidate with the lowest vote dropping out, until the list of candidates is whittled down to just two who will go forward into a ballot of party members.
The new prime minister will be announced on September 5 when MPs return to Westminster from their summer break.