Truss’s allies have admitted it will be “impossible” for her to effectively govern and unite the Conservative party if she becomes leader. Truss is widely expected to beat Rishi Sunak in the race to become Prime Minister on September 5, but one of her senior allies said she faces an “impossible” task to unite the party after a bitter leadership battle between the two camps. Ms Truss’ unnamed ally told The Times: ‘She has gone too far. People supporting Sunak will not lose easily. Their personal careers are more important than uniting the country. “For Liz, just governing will be impossible, never mind uniting the party. They will move against her. The winter will be awful. “If she does badly in the May election, they will get rid of her. They are collectively insane and the party is on the verge of collapse.”
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“It will be extremely difficult if he doesn’t reach out and really try to unite the party,” a minister allied to Sunak told the newspaper. “If he picks a bunch of underdogs that he’s just trying to redeem, he’ll look like Boris Mk2. It only ends the same way. She needs to put in government people who have taken a principled stand against her, but can govern well and help her win elections. If he doesn’t, we will lose.” It comes after the Chancellor suggested those earning around £45,000 a year could struggle to cope with rising living costs as households brace for another painful price rise over the winter. Nadhim Zahawi said things will be “really tough” for middle earners, as well as the most vulnerable in society, as the energy price cap is set to rise by 80% by October, pushing his annual bill average household from £1,971 to £3,549. Industry regulator Ofgem warned the government it must act urgently to “match the scale of the crisis before us” as Britain dealt with the grim news on Friday. The i newspaper later reported that Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss is to give extra winter fuel payments to pensioners to ease the burden, despite previously insisting she was focused on tax cuts and not “handouts”. . Her rival Rishi Sunak has already said he will provide additional support aimed at the most vulnerable. Mr Zahawi said he was working “steadily” to draw up options for an action plan for the next prime minister so they can “hit the ground running” when they take office in September. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, he said he was exploring ways to ensure “we help those who really need the help”. “My concern is that there are those who don’t have benefits,” he said. “If you’re a senior nurse or a senior teacher on £45,000 a year, your energy bills are going up by 80% and will probably go up even more in the new year – it’s really tough. “If you’re retired, it’s very difficult. So Universal Credit is a really effective way of targeting, but I’m looking at what else we can do to make sure we help those who really need the help. We are looking at all options.”
