Day One of the campaign trail is over, and Liz Truss has emerged out of the gate as the frontrunner.
The latest poll of Tory members by YouGov puts Truss 24 percentage points ahead of Rishi Sunak, taking 62 per cent of the vote to Sunak’s 38 per cent.
The headline voting intention for Truss doesn’t include the 15 per cent who haven’t decided yet, and six per cent who say they will not vote.
She may be ahead in the polls, but Truss still had a shaky start as she began her campaigning in Peterborough. She was filmed visiting a school, where one pupil said: “This is so awkward.” Another told Truss: “Do me a favour, when you become prime minister, evict [Boris Johnson].”
To her credit, Truss played it off, replying that “he will have to move out at that point, it is true.”
Meanwhile, Sunak began his campaign by giving gift boxes to journalists, which included “Ready4Rishi” sun cream, that promised to give “guaranteed protection against Labour.”
Sunak was later interviewed on LBC by Andrew Marr, where the former chancellor claimed that Truss would be incapable of beating Labour in a general election.
With a BBC live debate set for Monday, and the first hustings event to take place in Leeds three days later on 28 July, this is only the beginning of a long, hard slog.
