The Conservatives will likely elect her, but lacklustre Liz won’t help them

Editorial: Ms Truss’s ignorance of economics has been one of the most surprising and disturbing aspects of this leadership election

(Dave Brown)

At his final Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson dropped a particularly heavy hint to the cheering benches behind him – some of whom actually cannot wait to be rid of him –  that his favoured candidate in the leadership election is Liz Truss.

Perhaps exaggerating the facts and over-simplifying complex arguments, the prime minister declared that his successor should go for tax cuts and deregulation. He advised them, and by extension the Tory membership, that they shouldn’t take too much notice of the Treasury: “If we had always listened to the Treasury we’d never have built the M25 or the Channel Tunnel.”

Given that Rishi Sunak was in charge of the Treasury until recently, and wants to put beating inflation before tax cuts, it doesn’t take Alan Turing-level skills to decipher that remark. After all, Mr Johnson’s spin doctors have already briefed that Mr Sunak is a “treacherous bastard”, while a loyal cabinet ally warned: “Rishi will get everything he deserves for leading the charge in bringing down the prime minister.”