Liz Truss wins backing from high Eurosceptics in Conservative management race

Liz Truss’s bid to change into prime minister has obtained a much-needed increase after main Eurosceptics, together with the attorney-general Suella Braverman, backed her marketing campaign.

Truss additionally received the help of Braverman-backer Steve Baker, the previous Brexit minister, and Lord David Frost, who delivered a scathing assault on Truss’s rival Penny Mordaunt, the commerce minister, within the course of.

The overseas secretary is the favoured candidate of supporters of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and has sought to attraction to the small-state, low-tax, pro-Brexit wing of the Conservative occasion.

However she has been struggling to construct momentum in her bid to change into the following Tory chief. Mordaunt has been a shock success within the management marketing campaign, with a message combining Brexit, social liberalism and the provide of a “recent begin”.

Truss stays in third place behind former chancellor Rishi Sunak and Mordaunt, making the following few days essential for her marketing campaign as she tries to achieve floor on her rivals.

Braverman, who was eradicated from the management contest within the second spherical of voting by Tory MPs on Thursday, introduced she would again Truss to ship on Brexit and to take a agency line on immigration, reducing taxes and shrinking the state. Braverman, who described herself as the one “genuine” Brexiter, secured solely 27 votes.

Truss received 64 votes within the second spherical, trailing Mordaunt on 83 and Sunak on 101. She is going to hope to choose up a lot of Braverman’s 27 votes within the subsequent spherical of voting on Monday.

In his Each day Telegraph column, Frost urged one other pro-Brexit candidate, Kemi Badenoch, to face down “in return for a severe job in a Truss administration” to permit the Tory proper to unite.

Badenoch, who received 49 votes on Thursday, mentioned she had no intention of withdrawing from the race and was in it “to win it”.

Frost additionally renewed his criticism of Mordaunt, with whom he labored on Brexit points as a cupboard workplace minister. He has mentioned she “wasn’t absolutely accountable or all the time seen” throughout talks with Brussels.

Badenoch, who additionally has gained momentum within the contest, and Tom Tugendhat, the average One Nation candidate who received 32 votes, hope to make use of a sequence of tv hustings to spice up their profile.

Channel 4 will host a debate on Friday night time, with ITV internet hosting a second occasion on Sunday and Sky Information early subsequent week.

If Tugendhat is knocked out within the subsequent spherical of voting on Monday, Sunak will hope to choose up a lot of his votes; he wants the backing of 120 colleagues to make certain of reaching the ultimate shortlist of two, which will likely be introduced to occasion members over the summer season.

If Badenoch is eradicated subsequent, then Truss and Mordaunt will likely be locked in a determined tussle to win the backing of her supporters to achieve the ultimate run-off. A brand new Tory chief and prime minister will likely be named on September 5.