Irish Examiner view: Truss and Sunak set for a bruising campaign

The contenders to lead the British Conservative Party ought to recall the words of Margaret Thatcher and Alan Clark

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. By all accounts there is little love lost between the two final candidates to lead the British Tory party. File picture: PA

Ahead of the forthcoming decisive battle for the leadership of the Conservative Party — and the key to 10 Downing St — the two remaining candidates in the battle, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, might recall the words of the late Margaret Thatcher.

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding,” Thatcher said in 1975, “because I think, well, if they attack me personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Both Sunak and Truss face a bruising campaign between now and September 2 when the ballot of Conservative Party members to elect the new leader will close. And, if the evidence of the televised debates between contenders is anything to go by, there is little love lost between them.

Much interest will focus on the campaign as it develops and as the two candidates set out their stall to try and gain the confidence of the party grassroots. Both will initially pledge to make their campaigns policy-driven and not a personality contest but, as is the way of modern politics, don’t be surprised to see a campaign that is bitter and vitriolic.

Hopefully, the person who has the clearest strategic vision for Britain will be the victor. It is in Ireland’s and the world’s interests to have a far-sighted and fair prime minister across the water. As the campaign now begins in earnest, both Sunak and Truss would also do well to remember the wisdom of former MP and diarist, Alan Clark, who once opined: “There is nothing so improves the mood of the party as the imminent execution of a senior colleague.”