Rishi Sunak has trolled his rival Liz Truss for chickening out of a TV interview with veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil.
Ahead of the first head-to-head tv debate between the two rivals for the Tory leadership at 9pm on Monday night, Sunak agreed to be questioned by Neil later in the week.
The former chancellor will be grilled live at 7.30pm on Channel 4 on Friday by Neil, who is reckoned to be the best tv inquisitor of his generation.
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When the news was announced Sunak tweeted “Just me then?” in an online challenge to Truss.
Truss has already been accused of running from scrutiny for her few and far between interviews since entering the leadership race.
Along with Sunak she dropped out of a Sky News debate, and now appears to be following in the footsteps of Boris Johnson, who refused to be interviewed by Neil during the 2019 general election.
The Prime Minister was accused of ‘running scared’ at the time, but went on to beat Jeremy Hunt.
Truss currently has a 24-point lead among Tory members over Sunak, meaning she would have far more to lose by agreeing to do the interview.
The two leadership contenders will go head-to-head tonight in a live TV debate on the BBC on Monday with Sunak having a lot of catching up to do.
Adding to the pressure on Sunak is the fact that ballot papers will start landing on doormats next week, with many of the 170,000 grassroots activists expected to vote straight away.
That means the Richmond MP must take advantage of the next few days to start changing members’ minds beginning with Monday’s tv clash.
The pair have already changed barbs on tax and on their respective backgrounds, with Sunak questioning Truss over having been a Lib Dem and a Remain supporter.
Over the weekend he said Truss’s plans to cut tax were “immoral” and her allies have accused him of being soft on China and weak on illegal immigration.
Monday’s TV debate takes place at 9pm on BBC One tonight (Monday 25th July 2022) titled Our Next Prime Minister.
The Truss campaign said they had “no plans"to do further interviews "at the moment".
Channel 4 hosted the first televised debate in this Tory leadership race, which saw more than two million people tuning in to see a series of bruising exchanges between the then-five contenders.
Scot Andrew Neil stepped down as the chairman of GB News last year, also quitting his prime-time show on the network.
The former Sunday Times editor was one of the BBC’s top political broadcasters for many years, presenting This Week, Daily Politics and BBC One’s Sunday Politics.
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