The Tory leadership race descended into an on-air slanging match on Sunday night with five candidates exchanging a series of barbed personal attacks on each other and their own party’s record in government.
The five remaining candidates - Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, Tom Tugendhat and Penny Mordant - sniped and shot attack lines at each other in an attempt to edge ahead of the pack.
Not one of the Tory leadership candidates said they would give Boris Johnson a job in their cabinets if they became Prime Minister as they galloped away form the legacy of the two and half years of scandal.
All the candidates delivered a resounding no to the idea of a general election if they won the leadership contest in the Autumn.
But that was one of the few points of agreement on a fractious hour-long debate moderated by ITV’s Julie Etchingham.
The personal animus between Sunak and Truss came to the fore early on in a debate on the economy.
Liz Truss asked: “If Rishi’s got a great plan for growth, why haven’t we seen it in his last two-and-a-half years in the Treasury.”
What began with squabble over tax cuts that turned into an alley fight with Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt turning fire on Rishi Sunak for not cutting taxes.
Rishi hit back, accusing Truss of “socialist” policies with her sky-high borrowing plans and put in a sliding tackle against Mordaunt for her suggestion of borrowing to cover day to day finances.
He said: “Putting the day to day bills on the credit card - not even Jeremy Corbyn thought that was the right approach”.
“If we’re not for sound money what is the point of the Conservative Party?” asked Sunak.
Kemi Badenoch, in another personal attack, asked why Sunak had not taken up her idea to tackle covid loan fraud.
Baring his own teeth, Sunak asked Truss if she regretted having been a Lib Dem more than having voted against Brexit?
Truss, who voted remain in 2016, was left rigid when ITV host Julia Etchingham asked candidates to raise their hands if they voted for Brexit.
The Foreign Secretary, now a favourite of the Brexiteers, could not deny her record.
Badenoch said “talking is easy” as she accused Tom Tugendhat of not being on the front line of government. But he replied he had served on the actual front line in combat zones from Iraq to Afghanistan.
But all wanted a clean break with Boris Johnson. None raised their hands to give Boris Johnson a job in their cabinet if they won.
The next round of voting by Conservative MP begins on Monday and by Thursday the party hopes to present two candidates left standing to the Conservative membership for a summer election campaign.
