Starmer can sit back as Conservative leadership hopefuls do the mudslinging

The Conservative leadership election is a gift for Labour. All week, Keir Starmer’s party has been able to sit back and take pot-shots as the contenders to replace Boris Johnson hurl personal attacks, excoriate the flawed record of a government most of them served in and generally rip into each other. Over the weekend, the Tories did even more damage as the contest reached a new audience with live televised debates. Both debates, on Friday and Sunday, provided Labour with a veritable smorgasbord of clippable moments as the candidates turned against each other with pithy one-liners they will no doubt come to regret.

Rishi Sunak looked like the clear frontrunner on Sunday night as almost all his rivals used their one question to challenge the former Chancellor. Sunak used that airtime to highlight Starmer’s main attack line for him – that his Tory colleagues are “peddling the fantasy economics of unfunded promises” – tell Penny Mordaunt that her plan to ditch one of his two fiscal rules (not to borrow for day-to-day spending) is something Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t support and accuse Liz Truss of pushing “socialist” economics.

Liz Truss, in turn, attacked Sunak for raising taxes to record levels and abandoning the government during the Ukraine crisis, while Kemi Badenoch called for unity while pretty much slagging off everyone. Tom Tugendhat – widely accepted as the candidate most likely to drop out of the election this afternoon as Conservative MPs participate in another vote – reminded viewers that everyone else in the race is tainted by being recent or current members of Johnson’s government.

And those swanky dinners and soirees the Tories love so much could prove awkward in the future when any of the leadership hopefuls come face to face with Johnson. It cannot have been easy watching for Johnson as none of them said they would have the outgoing Prime Minister serve in their government during the debate on Sunday. Only Tugendhat could bring himself to admit on Friday, however, that the lockdown-partying Prime Minister is not “honest”. Clearly, all the candidates realise that, if they win, their government will need to make a clean break with the sleaze-ridden Johnsonian era to survive – but none of those who could actually win look like they will be able to do so.

The Tories are echoing the criticism Labour frontbenchers themselves are making. Bridget Phillipson, for example, told viewers on Sunday morning: “I don’t think we’ve got anything to fear from any of the candidates and the reason for that is that all of them have propped up Boris Johnson and the Conservative government for 12 years now.” Labour politicians will be very pleased with this blue-on-blue action as the party sits back and watches the Tories do their mudslinging for them.