London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Ben Wallace endorses Liz Truss as he attacks Rishi Sunak’s lack of experience

Ben Wallace endorses Liz Truss as he attacks Rishi Sunak’s lack of experience

Major boost to Liz Truss ahead of crucial weekend of campaigning for Tory leadership

Rishi Sunak was under fire on Friday as the two contenders bidding to become Britain’s next Prime Minister prepared for a crucial weekend of campaigning.

With many of the 160,000 Conservative party members expected to vote soon after receiving their postal ballots early next week, the former chancellor was dealt a blow when Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that he was endorsing Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Doubling down on criticism of Mr Sunak , Mr Wallace questioned his experience for the top job and said he had been wrong to resign from the Government earlier this month, triggering Boris Johnson’s resignation.

Liz Truss speaking at an event at Breckland Council in Dereham, Norfolk, as part of her campaign to be leader of the Conservative Party and the next prime minister


Explaining his decision to back Ms Truss on Sky News, Mr Wallace said: “She’s actually incredibly experienced in government. She is the only candidate that did nearly two years in the Treasury as the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. She was in international trade, and negotiated trade deals. And now she has been a Foreign Secretary. That’s a broad experience that I’m afraid Rishi doesn’t have. Yes, he’s been in the Chancellery, but he doesn’t have that broad experience.”

Before the Tory leadership contest began earlier this month, the Defence Secretary was seen as a frontrunner to replace Mr Johnson, coming out on top in early polls of Conservative party members who will ultimately make the decision by September 5. But despite winning plaudits for his handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mr Wallace decided not to run, sparking a tussle among candidates to secure his support.

Following Thursday night’s first hustings event for the two candidates in Leeds, they were back on the campaign trail on Friday with the former chancellor expected to canvass Tory members in Kent while the Foreign Secretary was heading to Suffolk and Norfolk.

One senior Tory figure said Ms Truss had beaten expectations during the Leeds debate with a more polished performance and a focus on local issues which played well with the audience.

Former cabinet minister Greg Clark (L) introduces Rishi Sunak, candidate to become Britain's next prime minister and Conservative party leader, during a campaign event in Tunbridge Wells, Ken


But while she is enjoying a comfortable lead in early polls of Tory members, the senior Tory said Mr Sunak’s pitch to the wider electorate may convince some undecided voters that he represents the best chance of securing a general election victory over Labour.

A YouGov poll earlier this week showed that Mr Sunak is more popular with swing voters than Ms Truss but among Tory members Ms Truss is way out in front, partly due to her promises to cut taxes immediately but also because Mr Sunak is seen as disloyal for quitting.

In an appeal to the Tory base, Mr Sunak vowed on Thursday to double the number of foreign criminals deported from the UK if he becomes Prime Minister. He said: “We are far too soft on foreigners who commit crimes in our country so I will double the number of foreign offenders we deport. I will cut crime by locking the most prolific offenders up, keeping them locked up, and building the prison space needed to do so.”

But after Tory members at the Leeds hustings questioned Mr Sunak over his decision to resign as chancellor, Mr Wallace said: “I just don’t think walking out at a time of a crisis is the right course of action. There were other mechanisms to do what they wanted. If Rishi Sunak didn’t want the Prime Minister to be Prime Minister, there are other mechanisms to do that.

“And that goes for all the other ministers. He made his choices. He reconciles himself with that. My judgment was, you know, well, first of all, I didn’t want the Prime Minister to go but if I had been in that position, I think there was another mechanism of doing it.”


Former security minister Damian Hinds, who is backing Mr Sunak, defended his decision to quit, citing major differences with Mr Johnson on economic policy and insisted the former chancellor could still win the contest.

He added: “The more members hear from Rishi, the more they get to meet Rishi actually, the more inclined they are to vote for Rishi as the candidate with the record, the experience, the character and the vision, not only to put in place, Conservative policies to make sure that we can win this historic fifth general election that we need to win against Labour.”

Mr Hinds also defended Mr Sunak’s plans to cut VAT on energy bills and questioned Ms Truss’s tax cutting plans, which his camp argues will drive up inflation. He said there was a “big difference” between the plan to cut VAT on the bills and “unfunded, massive increases in spending or cuts in taxes and all the borrowing that brings with it”.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×