Tory leadership - live: Sunak warns ‘we’ll lose election if inflation rampant’ as Truss heckled

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Eric Garcia

Washington Bureau Chief

Rishi Sunak has told Tory members the party will lose the 2024 general election if inflation is not brought under control – in a veiled warning of the risks of electing as leader Liz Truss, who wants to slash taxes immediately.

At a leadership hustings in Eastbourne, the former chancellor said he was “particularly worried about policies that risk making it worse and last longer”.

As the event began, Ms Truss was heckled before resuming her speech to blame “infiltrators” and attack “unfair protests” that “interrupt our democracy”.

Earlier, Mr Sunak was filmed boasting about diverting funding away from “deprived urban areas” towards more prosperous areas that “deserve” it.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy urged the government to investigate the “deeply concerning” remarks made to grassroots Tories in Kent last month – uncovered in footage obtained by the New Statesman .

He told supporters: “I managed to start changing the funding formulas, to make sure areas like this are getting the funding they deserve because we inherited a bunch of formulas from Labour that shoved all the funding into deprived urban areas and that needed to be undone.”