TORY leadership candidate Liz Truss is seeing support for her bid growing stronger, according to education secretary James Cleverly.
He told GB News: “It’s a tough process, it’s a rigorous process, I’m glad that it is.
“At the start of this campaign, a lot of people assumed that this would be Rishi in his element and what we have instead seen is Liz Truss gets stronger and stronger, getting more and more support.
“We just seen another ten MPs who have announced that they will be supporting her and what I’ve seen is when she is in those crowds, when she is in those debates, she has really, really shown that she is a fierce campaigner, and that’s exactly what we’re going to need as a party going into the general election.
“What I’ve seen working with her in government, she is a really effective, experienced delivery-focused minister, which is exactly what the country needs with whoever goes into Number 10.”
Mr Cleverly’s comments came during an interview on Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster ahead of Liz Truss speaking at a GB News People’s Forum in Leigh in Manchester at 5pm today.
He added: “Liz has committed to a support package for the people that need it most, but what she has said is that the current tax level that we’re experiencing the highest in over 70 years is unsustainable.
“You can’t just keep taxing money from people in order to slosh it around in a Whitehall system and then give some of it back to them in order to help them pay their bills.
“The best thing to do is for those people paying taxes to let them keep more of the money that they are earning and she said she will do that by not putting that National Insurance rise in place.
“She said she’ll be lifting those green levies so that that will also help bring down people’s energy bills and so she will be helping the people that need help directly.
“She will be reducing the tax on people that pay tax but ultimately what we’ve got to do is boost the economy, and that’s why she is saying we’ve got to encourage a world where investment happens, where we invest in things like nuclear energy generation, those renewable energy sources, so that we are no longer reliant on unpredictable and volatile international energy markets as we currently are.”
Mr Cleverly criticised Lib Dem proposals to tackle the cost of living: “I think the Lib Dems should hang their heads in shame when they talk about this situation at the moment.
“You look back at the footage when they were in government, blocking the rollout of the next generation of nuclear power, preventing us from having that energy independence that we would love to have in the here and now in the situation that we are currently facing.
“Everyone should remember this. The situation that we are currently facing has been made worse because of the lack of courage of Lib Dems when they were in government blocking Conservative plans to alleviate the energy situation that we are now in
“The Lib Dems…a period of silent reflection from them would be more appropriate, but we are going to make sure we roll out that new generation of energy production.
“That won’t address bills this winter which is why Liz has committed to an emergency budget as soon as the house comes back in September.
“Tomorrow, the chancellor and the business secretary will call in those energy companies and discuss with them exactly what we can do to help alleviate the pressures in the here and now and make sure we invest in bringing those bills down in the future.”
