Michael Gove has endorsed Rishi Sunak to be the next Conservative leader, accusing Liz Truss of taking a "holiday from reality" with her tax plans.
His attack on his former Cabinet colleague came as the foreign secretary and ex-chancellor battled it out in Manchester at another Tory leadership hustings event,
Mr Gove claimed Ms Truss would put “the stock options of FTSE 100 executives” before the nation’s poorest people.
“I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality. The answer to the cost of living crisis cannot be simply to reject further ‘handouts’ and cut tax,” he wrote in The Times.
Ms Truss, the leadership frontrunner, was earlier was accused of showing “her true colours” in an unearthed 2009 paper promoting vast spending cuts.
Labour said the think-tank report co-authored by Ms Truss – which called for “user charges for GPs”, the abolition of universal child benefit and the removal of the winter fuel payment – revealed that “the reality of her agenda is devastating cuts”.
