Truss Promises EU ‘Red Tape Bonfire,’ While Sunak Touts ‘Commonsense Thatcherism’

Undated file photos of Conservative leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. PA Media

The UK’s two final Conservative leadership contenders continued their clash on the economy, the biggest battleground of the race, as they began hustings over the weekend.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss vowed to light a “red tape bonfire” of EU regulations, while former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak said his proposals are ”commonsense Thatcherism.”

The two candidates also promised to tighten the border as they ramped up their campaigns to gain popularity among the Conservative grassroots.

Red Tape Bonfire

Truss, who voted to remain in the European Union in the 2016 referendum, gained the support of many hardline Brexiteer MPs when she successfully secured a number of trade deals as international trade minister, and introduced legislation to override part of the Brexit deal regarding Northern Ireland.

In a bid to cement her position as the “best candidate to deliver on the opportunities of Brexit,” Truss said on Friday night that if she becomes the prime minister, she would set a “sunset” deadline for every piece of EU-derived business regulation, some 2,400 in total, and assess whether they stimulate domestic growth or investment by the end of 2023.

Truss’s campaign said the Tory leadership hopeful “believes that a red tape bonfire will encourage business investment and boost growth.”

Conservative leadership contender, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, speaks to supporters during a visit to Ashley House, Marden, Kent, on July 23, 2022. James Manning/PA Media

During a visit in Kent to meet Conservative Party members, Truss said she wants to “get rid of those regulations, remove red tape on hardworking businesses and farmers, drive the economy forward, but also keep taxes low.”

Asked if she would reduce workers’ rights, Truss told reporters on her campaign trail in Kent, “Absolutely not.”

“What I’m about is about cutting people’s taxes, reversing the national insurance increase to put more money in people’s pockets, and making sure those who work hard, go out to work, are rewarded,” she said.

Sunak has said he would appoint a Brexit minister to go through the remaining EU laws still on the statute book if he were to beat Truss in the contest to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The minister would be instructed to come forward with the first set of recommendations for rules to be scrapped or changed within 100 days of Sunak entering Downing Street.

Thatcherism

Truss, who has for a number of times donned outfits that resemble the wardrobe of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been dubbed a “Thatcher tribute act.”

She dismissed the claim, telling BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme, “I am my own person.”

“I’m from a very different background. I grew up in Yorkshire. I went to a comprehensive school. I am somebody who has worked all my life to get things done. And that’s what I want to do in the job,” she said.

Sunak, on the other hand, kicked off his campaign trail with a speech on Saturday in Thatcher’s hometown of Grantham, and called his plans “commonsense Thatcherism.”

Inflation versus Stagflation

The former chancellor sought to undermine his opponent’s Brexit credentials, saying, “If we are to deliver on the promise of Brexit, then we’re going to need someone who actually understands Brexit, believes in Brexit, voted for Brexit.”

Arguing against Truss’s plan of an immediate tax cut, Sunak said it would worsen inflation.

“Rising inflation is the enemy that makes everyone poorer and puts at risk your homes and your savings. And we have to tell the truth about tax,” he said, appearing to take a swipe at Truss.

“I will not put money back in your pocket knowing that rising inflation will only whip it straight back out.”

Conservative leadership contender Rishi Sunak, with daughters Krishna, Anushka and wife Akshata Murthy, during a visit to Vaculug tyre specialists at Gonerby Hill Foot, Grantham, on July 23, 2022. Danny Lawson/PA Media

Truss previously said she would immediately reverse Sunak’s increase on national insurance and pause the green energy levy so people can afford bills. She said she would fund the tax cuts by spreading the debt accumulated during the COVID-19 pandemic over a longer period.

She hit back at Sunak’s criticisms on Saturday, saying she believes it’s “wrong to be taking money from people that we don’t need to take when people across the country are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.”

She said she was being “honest,” arguing cutting taxes will “drive growth in the economy that’s going to lead to higher tax revenues so we can pay back that debt.”

Simon Clarke, the chief secretary to the Treasury and a former colleague of Rishi Sunak, backed Truss on Twitter, saying, “The reality is that the true risk to our economy is stagnation (and indeed, stagflation).”

Clarke argued that the country “cannot tax our way to prosperity and without greater willingness to support lower taxes and supply-side reform we won’t achieve the growth rates we need to increase the size of the cake.”

NHS Backlog

Sunak promised on Saturday to create a backlogs taskforce, modelled after the vaccines taskforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, to help the NHS triage and treat patients quicker.

After the pandemic, the mounting backlog meant some patients had to turn to private medical care instead of languishing on a waiting list. Sunak called the situation “privatisation by the back door.”

Sunak’s five-point plan also includes a plan to expand the number of community diagnostic hubs by repurposing 58,000 vacant high street shops, with the aim of boosting the number of such hubs to 200 by March 2024.

His strategy comes with promises to cut bureaucracy in a bid to attract the best doctors, while also pledging to put patients in the “driving seat” by floating the idea of looking again at people having their own family doctor.

After Sunak unveiled his plan, Truss told reporters she’s “very clear” on the need to tackle the NHS backlog, and will enlist a “strong health secretary that would get that done.”

“But in order to pay for those public services, we need a growing economy. That’s so vital that we unleash those post-Brexit opportunities. We get rid of those pointless EU regulations. And we also cut taxes to make sure that we are getting people to set up businesses and help grow the economy,” she said.

PA Media contributed to this report.