After about forty minutes, earrings were actually discussed. During the day it was in the UK hybrid bubble of Twitter and Daily Mail been a topic that Liz Truss wears earrings for £4.50 while Rishi Sunak spends hundreds of pounds on a pair of shoes and thousands on a suit. Nadine Dorries, a Truss supporter and a member of the UK Government as Culture Secretary, wasn’t too stupid to post the tabloids and comment in a look-a-think way, as if earrings for forty-five were proof of who’s the better head of government this G -7-state. The BBC took the madness to the extreme late Monday evening.
In the first live televised debate between the two candidates to succeed Boris Johnson, presenter Sophie Raworth, supported by the very knowledgeable but often a tad over-excited BBC policy chief Chris Mason, asked how it was that even earrings and clothes could be worn in this election campaign would become the subject. Raworth and Mason were outraged, but wanted to know from the two candidates: “Is that important?” Which led to Truss and Sunak talking for a full seven minutes about how it doesn’t matter.
After that there was less than 15 minutes left in this TV debate. Climate policy was discussed for almost two minutes, the ailing health system even less, and the Northern Ireland Protocol and the broken relationship with the EU not at all.
In six weeks it will be clear whether Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will inherit Boris Johnson at 10 Downing Street. Six weeks in which twelve so-called “hustings” take place, rounds of questions between the candidates and the party members who vote on who will be their new boss and thus also the boss of the country. So far, three TV debates have been planned. There had already been two such rounds when there were only five candidates, now only Truss and Sunak remain, the foreign minister and the former finance minister.
The Conservatives are feeding the opposition
The first two five-person TV debates were often disconcerting in tone and content, particularly from the perspective of a non-voting viewer – either a foreigner or one of the approximately 67.1 million non-Conservative Brits in Britain. On Monday evening it was almost worse.
Taking place in a theater in Stoke-on-Trent, the debate started with a zoom in on Truss and Sunak, standing still and frozen smiling, for endless seconds while the presenter continued speaking. Suddenly a blink on Sunak’s face, camera cut, welcome, first question. Sunak, who was far behind in the polls, immediately started talking, as if he wanted to convert words into percentage points, he talked and talked, Truss said “excuse me” a few times, her facial expressions alternated between helpless and piqued. Sophia Raworth, the presenter, resigned early.
Allegations upon allegations: Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss take a tough stance on the debate.
(Photo: BBC/via REUTERS)
Sunak repeatedly reproached Truss for quotes from her past, and Truss in turn accused Sunak of having put the economy in the bad position it is in as Treasury Secretary. It’s been like this since this election campaign started, the candidates talking about the state of the country in a way as if they personally hadn’t been in government for the last three years and their party hadn’t been in government for the last 12 years. Keir Starmer, Labor leader and leader of the opposition, recently read out quotes from the Tories about the Tories from the first TV debates in Parliament.
How do you feel about Johnson?
The main topic of the evening was taxes, the main dividing line between the two. Truss wants immediate tax cuts, Sunak thinks that’s dangerous. They both talked about it almost constantly, with the most passion you’ve ever heard people talk about taxes. And then Boris Johnson came up.
The moderator wanted to know whether the two could imagine including him in their government, which is such an absurd question that one would have liked to come to Truss’s help when she danced around this question for minutes. Yes, of course, Boris Johnson did so many things right, but yes, on the other hand, this question is quite unrealistic. After a while it was Sunak who closed the issue by cutting Truss off (of course) and saying: “The answer is simple: no. We have to look forward, Boris Johnson will not be part of my government.”
Sunak sets the final point
The TV debate format has existed in the UK since 2010, and studies have looked at the impact these formats have on voting behavior, a big one, unsurprisingly. The question at the end is always: Who won?
Sunak scored the final point when the two were asked to tell each other what each other could do better, like in couples counseling. Truss said, “Rishi, I think you could be braver sometimes”. Sunak said: “I don’t do that, I appreciate Liz a lot and when the leadership contest is over we will work great together.” Then there was the loudest applause of the evening.
But the real winner is neither Rishi Sunak nor Liz Truss. But Keir Starmer.