For an hour and a half from 7.30pm London time, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordant, Liz Truss, Kemi Beidenock and Tom Tugenhat will answer questions from citizens and moderator journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
London: Thanasis Gavos
Tonight on Channel 4 they will cross swords five remaining contenders of the leadership of the Conservative Party and the Prime Ministership in Britainin the first television debate organized as part of the race Boris Johnson’s succession.
For an hour and a half from 7.30 pm London time, questions from citizens and the moderator journalist Krishnan Guru-Murthy will be answered by the Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordant, Liz Truss, Kemi Beidenock and Tom Tugenhut.
Former Finance Minister Mr Sunak won the second vote of the Conservative caucus on Thursday with 101 votes. She was followed by former Minister of Defense Ms Mordaud with 83 votes and then the current Secretary of State with 64. Ms Beidenock collected 49 votes and Mr Tugenhat 32.
Next week, starting on Monday, there will be as many votes as necessary until the final pair of contenders emerge, with the winner and next Prime Minister determined on September 5 through a vote of Conservative Party members.
The betting offices on Friday morning they insist that Penny Mordant, who is the most popular of the candidates among the party’s base, is the favorite for the premiership.
In second place Liz Truss has overtaken Rishi Sunak, who is lagging behind in popularity among Tory members who will ultimately decide the winner.
In the background of the succession race, moreover, allegations of “dark operations” defaming candidates by the staffs of the rest have multiplied.
Mr Sunak is said to be under constant behind-the-scenes communications attacks from MPs close to Boris Johnson, who have accused him of “betraying” the outgoing Prime Minister by resigning last Tuesday and with what they say is a “socialist” tax policy. of.
A behind-the-scenes communications operation is also believed to be underway to name “anyone but Rishi” as the winner, with Mr Johnson understood to be backing Liz Truss.
Most of the fire comes from Ms Mordot, whose unexpected dynamism has reportedly unnerved Ms Truss, who was the early favorite along with Mr Sunak.
Ms Truss’s supporter Lord Frost, the UK’s former chief Brexit negotiator, said on Thursday that Penny Mordant, who was under his command at the time, had carried out her duties poorly. He said, among other things, that although he had supported Brexit he had avoided forcefully passing the messages he owed to the EU. Lord Frost summed up that he had “serious doubts” about Ms Mordaud’s leadership abilities.
However, the 49-year-old politician is mainly criticized for the apparent change of attitude on the issue of transgender women’s rights. While she was seen as a supporter of them, during the succession process she has taken a harder line, which her opponents attribute to an attempt to co-opt executives from the party’s right wing.
In fact, Attorney General Suella Braverman, a representative of the far-right Tory wing who was expelled after Thursday’s vote and later declared support for Liz Truss, accused Ms Mordot of attempting to change the wording in a related bill from “pregnant women” to “pregnant persons”.
Ms Tras is accused by the staffs of the other candidates, notably Penny Mordant, of inciting such allegations. Her campaign appearances so far, moreover, have been criticized by her opponents as “wooden” or “robotic”.
Ms. Bedenock is accused, mainly by supporters of Liz Truss, that by remaining in the succession race she is splitting the right-wing vote, creating the risk that the Minister of Foreign Affairs will lose momentum.
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