Inside Politics: Disappearing act

Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

The days are getting shorter, it’s slowly getting colder outside and there are no bank holidays until Christmas. But there are reasons to rejoice this Tuesday morning: the Tory leadership contest will be over by this time next week. The foreign secretary has been channelling her best Houdini act while Boris Johnson begins the final leg of his farewell tour.

Parliament is not sitting.

Digital minister Matt Warman on talkTV at 8.05am.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham on ITV GMB at 8.30am.

Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss has pulled out of an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson due to air tonight – her only TV grilling of the campaign. Team Truss says the foreign secretary simply can no longer “spare the time” to take part in the interview, which would have taken place just days after perhaps one of the strongest criticisms yet of her tax-cutting plans.

Truss, the favourite to replace Boris Johnson in No 10 Downing Street, clearly feels she has nothing to gain by going head-to-head with one of the best political interviewers in the business, opting for a ‘safety first’ strategy. What could she be afraid of? There is no requirement for MPs to conduct TV interviews when running for high office, and their pulling out of such events has unfortunately become a cynical – and undemocratic – fixture of political life in the UK.

The man Truss looks likely to replace infamously declined to be interviewed by Robinson’s ex-colleague, Andrew Neil, during the 2019 general election campaign – and there are plenty of other examples pre-dating that one.

Team Rishi Sunak and the Labour Party are on the same page this morning, accusing Truss of avoiding scrutiny – an accusation the foreign secretary will find difficult to rebuff. “People will rightly conclude that she doesn’t want to answer questions about her plans for the country because she simply hasn’t got any serious answers to the big challenges facing our country,” Labour’s Conor McGinn said. Truss and Sunak take part in the final hustings event tomorrow, with voting in the contest set to close at 5pm on Friday.

open image in gallery

Truss might be dodging the cameras this week but the current occupant of No 10 will be doing everything he can to get in front of them, as he tries to remind the public of all the good things he did – like making a hash of his premiership to leave the door open for the foreign secretary to replace him.

The PM is set to visit north Dorset today where work is kicking off on the first major contract underthe government’s Project Gigabit, the £5 billion programme to roll out more reliable broadband to hard-to-reach areas.

Johnson said he was “proud” of the expansion and that it demonstrated “levelling up” in action not just in the north and midlands, but across the south too. “I am proud that today more than 20 million households, businesses and organisations are able to tap into rapid and reliable internet, unleashing their potential, creating opportunities and driving growth across the country,” he said.

The outgoing PM will be keen to talk about broadband but the cost of living crisis and how to deal with it remains the number one issue facing Britons. There is still plenty of confusion about how Truss will help with soaring gas and electricity bills. Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor (for now), is to spend the next few days in the US for discussions about financial services co-operation, support for Ukraine and energy security, the Treasury said.

Labour described the visit as a “junket” and criticised Zahawi for “jetting off to an international chinwag” while families struggle to pay their bills.

Team Sunak on Truss’s failure to show up for BBC interview.

“It’s important that candidates face proper scrutiny so that members and the public know what they are offering. Avoiding that scrutiny suggests either Liz Truss doesn’t have a plan at all or the plan she has falls far short of the challenges we face this winter.”

Financial Times Whitehall editor Sebastian Payne on Truss no show.

“Insiders on Truss’ campaign say she’s not doing the Beeb interview as she’s focused on winning over as many votes as possible – plus preparations for government.”

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