A Tory leadership hopeful faltered in an interview today when he was brutally reminded how he backed Liz Truss’s own quest to lead the Conservative Party.
Shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat was trying to outline his vision to bring the Tories back from their abysmal election result on his morning media round when Truss’s legacy came up.
ITV’s Good Morning Britain presenter, Ranvir Singh, said: “You did back Liz Truss. Now we know that went disastrously wrong, and people’s mortgages went sky-high.
“The trust has gone hasn’t it? You backed Liz Truss’s plan for the economy – was that one of your major mistakes?”
Truss, who served as PM for just 49 days, was kicked out of office after tanking the economy with her mini-Budget’s £45m of unfunded tax cuts.
Tugendhat told Singh that he had actually stood for leadership job against Truss, but was knocked out in the early stages – and then had to choose between Truss and Rishi Sunak.
The presenter replied: “You picked the wrong horse! That is your judgement that’s on display there isn’t it?”
Tugendhat squirmed, before saying: “I think Liz displayed a recklessness that I think surprised all of us.”
“So did you not know that these were unfunded tax cuts? I mean does that show a lack of care and thoroughness on your part when you declared your backing for her?” Singh hit back.
Tugendhat attempted to deflect by claiming the party needs to be focused on fixing the UK in the future, but the presenter said: “Let’s just concentrate on Liz Truss for a moment.”
Tugendhat smiled in an exasperated way, and said: “She’s not an MP anymore.”
Truss dramatically lost her South West Norfolk seat to Labour in the election.
But Singh pressed on: “She was our prime minister for a short period of time, and she crashed the economy, and it was a dreadful moment for this country around the world in terms of our reputation and our finances.
“You came out and backed her.
“I mean, that is pretty fundamental, isn’t it, in terms of your judgement?”
Tugendhat side-stepped the question, saying that he has served in several different governments over the years and that he is looking to rebuild trust with the British public.
Since losing her seat, Truss has tried to break into US politics by publicly backing Republican nominee Donald Trump.
She has also slammed the likely Democrat nominee and current vice-president Kamala Harris for “not delivering” in government.