Latest updates: Chris Skidmore says former chancellor ‘changing position’ too much as he backs Truss’s campaign
The Liz Truss camp claims the defection of Chris Skidmore (see 9.28am) could be the start of a “bigger exodus” of MPs from the Rishi Sunak campaign. A Truss campaign spokesperson said:
We’re in talks with others from camp Rishi and Chris coming over could trigger a bigger exodus of MPs from Sunak to us. Rishi’s flip flopping and on the economy is clearly upsetting a lot of his backers. Our supporters like Liz’s optimistic vision for the future, her Conservative plan for the economy based around tax cuts, and her credentials as a leader who will stand up to dictators like Putin and prioritise national defence.
Cleverly confirmed that Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, and Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, are holding a meeting with energy company bosses tomorrow. The ministers will discuss increasing the scope of the windfall in the light of rising energy profits. Cleverly said:
The chancellor of the exchequer and the business secretary are actually calling in the leaders of those big energy companies to knock some heads together and basically hold them to account about what they’re going to do with those profits.
The increase in energy costs has been driven by the war in Ukraine and a global crunch, this is affecting everyone pretty much across the world, everyone in the developing world is seeing those energy bills go up. What we need to do is make sure that we have a short, medium and long term plan, so the chancellor and the business Ssecretary are getting those energy companies in as part of the short-term response.
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