Jeremy Hunt has said he would make Esther McVey his deputy prime minister if he won the Conservative leadership campaign, as a string of contenders reiterated promises to cut taxes, while being largely vague on how this would be financed. As a series of the hopefuls toured the TV studios for the Sunday broadcast rounds, Hunt, Grant Shapps, Tom Tugendhat and Sajid Javid all repeated promises to cut taxes, saying this could be funded from efficiencies or growing the economy. In a further sign that even more moderate candidates are mindful of the need to appeal to the views of Tory party members, who will decide from the final two in the race, Hunt also confirmed that if elected leader he would continue Boris Johnson’s controversial policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda, and push through the bill to unilaterally change the Northern Ireland protocol. Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday Morning show, Hunt attempted to broaden his appeal by saying he was in alliance with McVey, the former work and pensions MP, a strong pro-Brexiter who set up the influential Blue Collar Conservatism caucus of Tories. Hunt argued that as a former foreign secretary and health secretary he had more experience than rival candidates. “I also recognise that the leader of a political party has to win elections, and that means a broad appeal, so just as Tony Blair had John Prescott to broaden his appeal as his deputy prime minister, I will have Esther McVey as my deputy prime minister,” he said. “She has won a lot of elections against Labour in the north, I have won them against Lib Dems in the south and I think we will be a formidable campaigning team.”
McVey has won one election against Labour, when she took the Wirral West seat from them in 2010. However, she lost it again in 2015, and was moved to the safe constituency of Tatton in Cheshire, which she has represented since 2017. McVey is nonetheless a notable contrast to Hunt, and could extend his appeal into other areas of the party. She has, however, faced controversy, being accused of lying to parliament when work and pensions secretary, and arguing that parents should be able to take primary-aged children out of lessons on same-sex relationships. It comes as Penny Mordaunt, the former defence secretary, entered the race with a campaign video featuring lingering images of the UK countryside. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary and one of the favourites to win, is due to formally begin her campaign early next week. On Sunday she won the backing of a cabinet colleague, the work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey, who tweeted that Truss had the necessary record and “can unite the red and blue wall”. Another major cabinet figure, Priti Patel, is also tipped to enter the race, although allies of the home secretary insist she has not yet formally taken a decision. Also confirmed as standing are ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak; Javid, the former health secretary; the backbench MP Tugendhat; Shapps, who is transport secretary; the attorney general, Suella Braverman; the former minister Kemi Badenoch, and Nadhim Zahawi, who replaced Sunak as chancellor.
Speaking to Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme, the ex-minister and veteran MP David Davis said Truss, Shapps and Hunt were “the ones I’m thinking about” as likely winners. He said: “They’ve all got some experience, which is very important. Competence is critical.” Shapps, Tugendhat and Javid, like Hunt, have made lavish promises of tax cuts, but have thus far been slightly vague on how they would be financed. Hunt and Tugendhat said they aimed to pay for the tax cuts by growing the economy in the longer term, while Shapps said he would make efficiencies, for example using less paper in Whitehall, and cutting the number of civil servants. Hunt has not pledged any personal tax cuts, only to corporation tax. Speaking on BBC One’s Sunday Morning programme, Javid said his planned tax cuts, including getting rid of the increase in national insurance contributions to pay for a reform of social care, would cost about £39bn a year, and that in the coming days he would produce “a scorecard which will show exactly how all of that [will be] funded in a sustainable way”. Appearing for Labour, the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, called the contest, set in train by Johnson’s decision to resign as Tory leader on Thursday, a “chaotic catwalk”. She said: “I think all of them are really part of this catalogue of failure. They are, all of them, letting the country down.”