July 29, 2022 - 9:50am

Last night’s official Conservative Party leadership hustings in Leeds amply demonstrated the superiority of the model over the US-style TV debates we have been subject to so far.

But tuning in, it seemed as though CCHQ wasn’t convinced about this. Fully the first 45 minutes of the event was taken up by an interminable string of introductions, endorsement speeches, and videos from the candidates. (Those tuning in to the livestream were treated to shots of the bored-looking audience as these last were played to the auditorium — another media-management triumph for the Party.)

Yet the format did have one big drawback. Because the two candidates did not appear side-by-side, they were not asked the same questions. This makes it tricky for Conservative members to do a direct comparison on the issues. Which is, ultimately, their entire job.

Take education, a vital issue which the Tories are prone to neglect. Last night, we learned that Sunak is in favour of allowing more grammar schools. This is potentially a very interesting development.

But due to the format, we got zero details. Does he merely intend to allow existing grammar schools to expand, which was the policy explored by Theresa May? Or does he actually want new grammars to open for the first time since the Sixties? For Truss’ part, we do not know her answer because she was never asked.

It’s the same story with the Northern Ireland Protocol. Yes, both candidates have committed to supporting the Bill currently going through Parliament. Sunak said that it “will fix” the problems with the sea border.

But this isn’t true. The Bill — which Truss introduced against his objections in Cabinet — solves nothing by itself. It merely gives the Government the power to address the problems created by the EU’s trade border in the Irish Sea.

What we really need to hear is what both candidates will do with the new powers the Bill will grant the next prime minister. But again, we don’t know because one wasn’t asked the right follow-up questions, and the other wasn’t asked about Northern Ireland at all.

So far, the Tory leadership debate seems to be in the Goldilocks phase. The TV debates were too focused on a narrow range of macro-economic issues; the first husting was a wide-ranging but incoherent tour of what matters to Conservative activists.

Hopefully, the next few weeks — and the next 11 hustings — will see the Party and the broadcasters finally get the balance right, and properly interrogate both hopefuls on what their Conservative vision for the 2020s actually looks like.


Henry Hill is Deputy Editor of ConservativeHome.

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