Rishi Sunak has suggested his greatest weakness is “working hard” and trying to be “perfect”.
Taking part in a Conservative Party leadership hustings hosted by Conservative Home on Friday afternoon, the candidates to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister were asked what their greatest weakness was.
“Most people know I have a reputation for working hard and getting across the details,” Sunak, the current frontrunner, replied.
“You’ve got to make sure in these jobs, especially in the more senior you get, you don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.”
He added: “What I am constantly working at is getting that balance right between being across the detail, understanding every of something, and realising I know as much can, I have done as much as I need to on that.”
Answering the same question, Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said she had a habit of being “excessively over enthusiastic”.
“Sometimes I have to rein myself in and try and do a bit less,” she added.
Truss is hoping to unite the Brexiteer right wing of the party behind her in order to take on Sunak in the final round of the contest.
She is in a bitter battle with trade minister Penny Mordaunt to finish in the top two, with further ballots of Tory MPs due to take place next week.
Mordaunt said her weakness was her four Burmese cats. Kemi Badenoch said hers was people taking her jokes too seriously. And Tom Tugendhat, a former soldier, said he might “talk about the army a little bit too much”.
All five candidates are due to take place in a TV debate, hosted by Channel 4, on Friday evening at 7.30pm.