Conservative leadership candidates racing to get backers on board

Nominations for the contest officially open and close today, and candidates need to receive the support of 20 MPs to get their name on the ballot.

Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is already well beyond that with around 40 pledging their support, and Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat are also over the threshold.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss got the backing off Boris Johnson loyalists Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries this morning, while Conservative grandee David Davis threw his support behind Ms Mordaunt.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps dropped out of the race on Tuesday morning and announced his support for Mr Sunak.

At a campaign launch event this morning, Richmond MP Mr Sunak pledged that he would only cut taxes when inflation is back under control.

He said it is “not credible to promise lots more spending and lower taxes”, in a swipe at rivals who have proposed multibillion-pound tax cuts immediately.

Instead he said he would only cut taxes “once we’ve gripped inflation”.

“We need a return to traditional Conservative economic values and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairytales,” he said.

Tax has become a hot topic on the campaign trail, and at her launch this morning, Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch has said she will not enter into a tax cut “bidding war” against the other candidates.

Speaking to MPs including Michael Gove, who has pledged his support for her, she said: “I will not enter into a tax bidding war and say my tax cuts are bigger than yours.

“The dividing line in this race is not tax cuts, it’s judgment.”

Former Army officer Tom Tugendhat was holding an event at the same time, and he dismissed concerns about the lack of his ministerial experience when going for the top job.

He told reporters: “The reality is that the job of prime minister is unlike every other job in government. It’s not a management job, it’s not a departmental job. It’s a job that demands vision and leadership, it demands a willingness to serve and to throw everything in the duty of serving the British people.

“This is no time to learn. What this is, is a time to look at a record of service and a record of delivery in some of the most difficult and trying conditions around the world, and to see that this isn’t learning on the job, this is putting all that experience to work on the job.”