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Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak haven’t proven they can connect with the public like Boris Johnson once did

The two contenders prefer squabbling over tax to dealing with voters' short-term problems head on

The two contenders for No 10 appear to be more comfortable sparring over tax than tackling Britain’s problems head on.

At Tuesday night’s debate hosted by The Sun before it was cut short when the presenter fell ill – Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were repeatedly put on the spot by audience members, confronted over the real-life implications of the policies they have supported.

One described his own trouble accessing cancer care and asked: “Why is the NHS broken?” Another pointed to the growing price of meat, asking if she should simply turn vegetarian to afford her meals.

The response from both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss was, once again, to attack each others’ tax plans rather than engage with the substance of the questions. The Foreign Secretary denounced the rise in national insurance, while the former Chancellor claimed it would be wrong to cut corporation tax.

Long-term reforms are important. But for families wondering how they will pay their bills in the next few months, these solutions are no solution at all. Any worker earning less than £30,000 is having their national insurance cut, not raised; corporation tax adjustments will do nothing to affect prices in the short term.

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It was shortly before the untimely end of the debate that they were forced into more concrete pledges. Put on the spot, both Mr Sunak and Ms Truss promised to back fracking in order to bring down energy bills and pledged not to reverse the recent cut in fuel duty – the latter policy, in particular, is one that feeds directly into living costs.

The two candidates have spent weeks appealing only to their fellow MPs, and are now turning their attentions to around 160,000 Tory party members who tend to be more politically engaged than average. But in early September, one of the will become Prime Minister of the UK and will have to appeal to the public at large. Neither has yet shown they have the communication skills of the outgoing Conservative leader.

Love him or hate him, Boris Johnson had a unique ability to make millions of voters feel he was on their side. It is yet to be seen whether his successor can say the same.

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