A bitter run-off between Sunak and Truss will be something of a gift for Labour

The next Tory leader – and Prime Minister – will either be Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss. In a fifth and final round of voting by Conservative MPs yesterday, Penny Mordaunt was knocked out, leaving the former Chancellor and the Foreign Secretary to go forward to the next stage of the contest – a ballot of Conservative Party members. The remaining contenders to replace Boris Johnson will take part in a series of hustings for members around the country, kicking off next Thursday in Leeds. Worried, as non-Tory members, that you won’t get your fix of blue-on-blue infighting? Don’t fret – the BBC is due to broadcast a debate between Sunak and Truss on Monday, and Sky News is expected to host a second head-to-head on August 4th.

The Labour line on the final two leadership hopefuls is that Tory MPs have selected the “continuity candidates”. Shadow minister without portfolio Conor McGinn described Sunak and Truss as “stooges of the Johnson administration” and accused them of “desperately trying to distance themselves from the Tory record of the last 12 years”. On the broadcast round this morning, Steve Reed compared their selection to a regeneration episode of Doctor Who: “We just don’t know yet whether Boris Johnson is gonna come back reincarnated as Rishi or Liz.” The Shadow Justice Secretary declared that the idea that either candidate represented a fresh start for the country was “for the birds”.

And in regard to Sunak at least, it appears many Tory voters agree. Exclusive polling by Savanta ComRes for LabourList found that 46% of voters opposed the former Chancellor becoming PM given the fine he received in relation to ‘partygate’. This included 39% of respondents who voted Conservative in 2019 and 65% of people who voted for the Brexit Party at that election. Truss having voted Remain has been seen as a ready-made attack line for Sunak. But our polling suggests that there is considerable opposition to Sunak becoming Tory leader among both Leave and Remain voters. 47% of Leave voters surveyed said they were against him being selected because he had received a fine for breaking lockdown rules. Exactly half of those who backed Remain in the 2016 referendum shared that opinion.

Keir Starmer was damning about the remaining leadership candidates ahead of the final round of voting. During yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour leader told MPs: “The message coming out of this leadership contest is pretty clear: they got us into this mess and they’ve no idea how to get us out of it.” He quoted the bitter criticisms candidates had thrown out about their rivals and the government’s record, comparing the two televised debates between them to an episode of Eastenders. With the remainder of the contest likely to be just as nasty, it will be something of a gift for the Labour comms department – as attack line after attack line falls directly into their laps.

On LabourList today, we have Ann Black’s report on the most recent meeting of Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), which covers the Forde report, parliamentary candidate selections and Labour’s stance on strikes among other things. Emma Hardy MP has written for us about the need for Labour to seize the opportunities presented by a shift to hybrid working. And do check out Morgan Jones’ review of Our Bloc: How We Win. “James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former comms director, has written a book,” she writes. “It is short, lucid and pleasantly free of the kind of personal hubris and score settling that dogs many books of this kind.” This is the first in a series of book reviews Morgan will be doing for LabourList so stay tuned for more. Sign up to LabourList’s morning email for everything Labour, every weekday morning.