Wallace, the defense secretary, also suggested he was throwing his weight behind Truss because he recognized the “threats we face every day” needed to be “properly funded”. Speaking after coming out about Truss in an op-ed for The Times, Wallace continued to attack her rival, telling Sky News that Sunak’s decision to cut business relief when he was chancellor was not a way to create “either wealth or indeed development”. Sunak was the second senior cabinet minister to resign from Boris Johnson’s government this month, after Sajid Javid, who precipitated Johnson’s downfall days later. Johnson’s allies blame Sunak more than anyone else for his departure. Wallace contrasted his and Interior Secretary Priti Patel’s decision to remain in their posts with the resignations of Sunak and others. “What if the markets had crashed? What if the Home Secretary had done it and there had been a terrorist attack? The public would never forgive us,” Wallace told Sky News. He appeared to echo criticism of Sunak’s record on defense spending. As chancellor, Sunak reportedly resisted pressure for a large increase in UK defense spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Wallace said: “I am the defense secretary, I want to find a candidate who will get the department right and recognize that the threats we face every day are very real and growing and they need to be properly funded. .” Taking a swipe at Sunak, Wallace wrote in the Times that Truss was “a winner not because she’s a slick saleswoman but because she’s genuine.” The two candidates faced a helter-skelter from voters in Leeds on Thursday in their first official meetings with Tory MPs, where taxation continued to be a major dividing line between them. Sunak implicitly criticized Truss, saying he would not “start the spree, borrowing tens and tens of billions of pounds of unfunded promises and putting them on the nation’s credit card”. Truss criticized the windfall taxes Sunak imposed on energy companies as a one-off as chancellor. He said: “I don’t believe in windfall taxes because they postpone future investment. What we need to do is encourage Shell and other companies to invest in the UK, because we need to increase our productivity, we need capital investment.’ Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss questioned by Tory party members in first run-ins – video highlights Sunak said he would support the creation of new high schools if he became prime minister. He used his opening speech at the Leeds debate to say he would create “a Britain where every child’s birthright is a world-class education”. Asked by host Nick Ferrari for a yes/no answer to the question of whether he would bring back grammar schools, Sunak – who attended one of the UK’s most expensive state schools – said: “Yes”. He added: “I believe in educational excellence, I believe education is the most powerful way we can change people’s lives. But I also think we can do a lot with the school system as we have it.” Some Tory MPs have long wanted the return of grammar schools, despite evidence that they tend to disproportionately benefit the children of wealthier families.
