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Tory Leadership Battle: Debate Presenter Faints, Truss Pulls Ahead of Sunak

    Tory Leadership Battle: Debate Presenter Faints, Truss Pulls Ahead of Sunak
    Last updated Jul 27, 2022
    Image credit: AFP [via The Telegraph]

    Facts

    • A UK Conservative Party Leadership debate between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak was cut short on Tues. when Kate McCann, the debate's presenter, fainted live on-air. It was later confirmed that she wasn't hurt.[1]
    • Before the incident, the candidates faced scrutiny over a failing NHS and an intensifying cost-of-living crisis. Sunak pledged to introduce a £12B tax to fund social care as PM, with Truss saying a tax would be "morally wrong" as people are struggling.[2]
    • The second debate between the two also touched on China and PRC-owned companies such as TikTok, with Sunak calling for a clampdown on Confucius Institutes in the UK and Truss accusing Sunak of only being a recent convert to fighting Chinese companies.[3]
    • According to a YouGov poll of Tory Party members - the group who will be electing the next PM - former Foreign Sec. Truss performed the best overall, outperforming her opponent in every category but one.[4]
    • Whoever inherits the premiership will face a host of challenges, including delivering Brexit, managing rampant inflation and stagnating wages, and controversial immigration policies.[5]
    • The conservative rivals have several weeks to campaign before around 200K Conservative party members elect the next UK leader by postal vote, with the winning candidate automatically becoming prime minister.[6]

    Spin

    Left narrative

    The only real winner of these debates is the Labour Party. Such ferocious and ad hominem attacks - such as the attention drawn to multimillionaire Sunak's exclusive education - are making the Tories look more divided than ever. Only Keir Starmer can solve the current problems of tax, social care, and public spending.

    Right narrative

    So-called "blue-on-blue" attacks are not harming the Conservative Party. On the contrary, these debates are an organized and democratic way of demonstrating that the party has a broad appeal, with diverse political philosophies that strengthen its governance. Labour should regret ever having forced Johnson down.

    Nerd narrative

    There is a 30% chance that Rishi Sunak will win the UK Conservative Party leadership election, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

    Political split

    LEFT

    RIGHT

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