Sunak and Truss in final two to be next PM

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have topped the final ballot of Conservative MPs in the race to be the next leader of the party and prime minister, after the elimination of Penny Mordaunt on Wednesday.

160,000 members of the Conservative party will now vote in a postal ballot, with the winner to be announced on 5 September. Sunak consistently topped the MPs' ballot, however, polls suggest that he is less popular among the wider Conservative party membership.

As part of the campaign, 12 hustings will take place around the UK from 28 July to 31 August. There will also be two televised debates on 25 July and 4 August.

Both of the candidates have written in national newspapers to set out their cases.

In the Daily Telegraph, Sunak wrote that he would introduce "a set of reforms as radical as the ones Margaret Thatcher drove through in the 1980s".

He said that he believed in "hard work, family and integrity", adding: "I am running as a Thatcherite, and I will govern as a Thatcherite."

"The best way to achieve economic growth is cutting taxes and bureaucracy, and boosting private sector investment and innovation," he continued.

Sunak has previously said the tax burden needed to be reduced but not immediately, saying it was a matter of "when not if".

He also commented that he is the best candidate to defeat Labour at the next election.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Truss promised "tax-cutting, enterprise-boosting, business-friendly Conservative policy".

She said: "the central issue at the next election is going to be the economy" and "we have been going in the wrong direction on tax".

"The central battleground will be about whether we go for growth and cut taxes, or carry on with business as usual and tax rises," she continued.

"I am the tax-cutting candidate who will help squeezed families by reversing April's national insurance rise and suspending the green levy on energy bills."

She also wrote that she would bring in an emergency budget to get the changes through quickly and to announce a spending review to "find more efficiencies in government spending".

Yesterday was also Boris Johnson's final Prime Minister's Questions. He signed off by saying "Mission largely accomplished, for now" and "Hasta la vista, baby".

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