An unscripted TV moment that may have sealed the fate of the next prime minister

Neither of the contenders in the battle for the Conservative leadership could be accused of overlooking the importance of presentation.

Continuing a practice long-honed at the Treasury, Rishi Sunak’s team has pumped out slick and glossy videos featuring lingering footage of the well-groomed former chancellor as prominently as his messages.

And Liz Truss has missed no opportunity as foreign secretary to pose for pictures featuring her riding on tanks or wearing a fur hat in Red Square, often selecting her poses and outfits in apparent homage to Margaret Thatcher.

Their appearances at debates have been practised and prepared meticulously, with Sunak carefully toning up the aggression for one televised clash in response to warnings that Truss was pulling ahead in the polls, only to scale it back down again after he was accused of “mansplaining”.

All of this effort is clearly necessary in a modern image-driven election, where clips shared on social media are likely to have more impact than screeds of policy on printed pamphlets. But it can leave the voter uncertain of what the candidates are really like, behind the images burnished by their teams.

The one moment in the contest so far to grant a glimpse into the candidates’ “natural” behaviour came with the thoroughly unscripted interruption to the Talk TV debate, when – without warning – moderator Kate McCann fainted and collapsed.

Thankfully, Ms McCann quickly recovered and was declared fit and well. But the moment may have given a boost to Ms Truss’s campaign as helpful as anything she could have said in the half-hour of the debate that did not happen.

With the cameras trained on her as she spoke about Ukraine, viewers were able to see the foreign secretary’s shock and look of concern, and then her immediate move off the podium to come to her interrogator’s assistance.

In a few seconds, watched by millions as the clip swirled around the internet, the sometimes wooden and artificial-seeming Truss was “humanised” and shown in a positive light. Sunak, by all accounts, also went to McCann’s aid, but the camera was not on him, so he gained nothing in terms of credit for his reaction.

The incident will probably not have a decisive impact on the campaign, but it is certainly the case that moments, when candidates are caught off-guard or think they are unobserved, can help shape their defining image in voters’ minds.

Think of John Prescott throwing a punch after being hit by an egg in the 2001 general election. Or Gordon Brown muttering about “that bigoted woman” in the back of his car, unaware that his mike was still on – or his head sinking into his hands during a radio interview afterward as the enormity of what he had done became clear to him.

With another five weeks of carefully planned campaigning ahead of us before the new Tory leader is named on 5 September, Conservative members – and voters in general – may well be hoping for a few more unscripted incidents to give them a view of the real people behind the candidates’ masks.

Yours,

Andrew Woodcock

Political editor