On Wednesday the list of hopefuls to succeed Boris Johnson was reduced to six when Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi were eliminated after failing to receive 30 votes in the first ballot of Tory MPs – many of whom have not made their support public.
Sunak is still in the race and a Tory MP went onto TV to go into bat from him, but a new video by Peter Stefanovic has torn her argument apart.
The former chancellor of the Exchequer launched his campaign with the slogan “Ready For Rishi” and leads the way with 56 public backers and 88 votes in the first round of the leadership contest.
Those supporting Mr Sunak include former fellow contender Jeremy Hunt and ex-education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, who said Mr Sunak is “by far the strongest performer” of the candidates.
Mr Hunt, who failed to garner the 30 votes needed from Tory MPs to get through Wednesday’s first round of voting, described the former chancellor as having the “highest standards of integrity”.
In a statement, Mr Hunt said: “I’ve been around long enough to know that politics is really about character and Rishi is one of the most decent, straight people with the highest standards of integrity that I have ever met in British politics and that’s why I would be proud to have him as my next Prime Minister.”
Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, dropped out of the race on Tuesday and put his weight behind Mr Sunak, who he said “has the competence and experience to lead this country”.
But it was Lucy Frazer MP who appeared on TV to claim that the Tories have cut taxes due to Rishi Sunak
This was debunked by Peter pretty comprehensively.
Then she claimed that the cost of the living crisis was being handled well by Sunak while he was Chancellor.
Again this doesn’t go down well with the filmmaker…
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