LIZ Truss was last night fighting back in the Tory leadership battle — securing the support of two key figures on the party’s Brexiteer right-wing.
The Foreign Secretary has slumped behind Penny Mordaunt as rival candidates in the race to become PM attempt to be in the final two.
Truss was last night fighting back in the Tory leadership battle
Rishi Sunak topped the latest MPs ballot with 101 votes
But her plea to “unite” the Right paid off last night when Brexit supremo Lord David Frost and Attorney General Suella Braverman both gave her their backing.
The potential support of the 27 Tory MPs who supported Ms Braverman — who fell out of the race yesterday — could prove crucial in her bid to overhaul Ms Mordaunt, who currently leads her by 19 votes.
Former Defence Secretary Ms Mordaunt came under scathing attack from rival camps yesterday, including supporters of Ms Truss.
They have accused her of being “lazy”, ineffective in government and not being straight about her pro-woke views on issues such as trans rights.
Meanwhile, it was claimed she plans to offer the post of Chancellor to Andrea Leadsom — a move which would split opinion on the Tory benches.
A Truss spokeswoman said: “Now is the time for MPs to unite behind the candidate who will cut taxes, deliver the real economic change we need, continue to deliver the benefits of Brexit and ensure Putin loses in Ukraine.
“Liz Truss has the experience to deliver from day one, grow our economy and support working families and then beat Labour.”
Rishi Sunak topped the latest MPs ballot with 101 votes — leaving him just 19 shy of the magic 120 to win a golden ticket to the final two.
Ms Mordaunt was second with 83 and Ms Truss third with 64.
As the rush for votes heated up, Team Truss dashed to schmooze Ms Braverman’s supporters.
If they manage to hoover them all up, she could leapfrog rival Ms Mourdant and end up in a one-on-one scrap with Mr Sunak for the Tory crown.
The Attorney General had earlier savaged Ms Mourdant over trans rights — heavily hinting she would never back her for leader.
She blasted: “My perception of Penny is she takes a different view to me when it comes to gender ideology and the position of trans, for example, I think she said a trans woman is a woman, I disagree with that.”
Ms Braverman also unexpectedly heaped praise on former Chancellor Mr Sunak, saying: “I think Rishi has had an incredibly difficult job to do navigating the finances through Covid and helping millions of people survive. I think he’s made decisions which have been very, very difficult.”
Ms Truss had left her home in a blue dress at 7.30am yesterday
But the Foreign Secretary appeared at her campaign launch at 10am wearing red
However, in a later interview, she swiped that Mr Sunak was on the Left of the party.
Tory rising star Kemi Badenoch — who continued her meteoric rise by bagging 49 votes — is also hoping to net some of Ms Braverman’s votes.
But it was a bad day for former Army officer Tom Tugendhat, who saw his vote count drop by five. He scraped through to the next round with 32 backers.
Furiously denying he will throw the towel in, his backers said he will end up “the David Cameron of the contest” as voters will fall in love with him when he appears on the live telly debates.
Ms Truss had left her home in a blue dress at 7.30am yesterday, but appeared at her campaign launch at 10am wearing red — and used the platform to outgun her rivals on tax cuts and drive a dump truck over Mr Sunak’s record.
She pledged to reverse his National Insurance and Corporation Tax hikes while also creating “new low-tax and low-regulation zones to attract investment”.
Attorney General Suella Braverman gave Ms Truss her backing
Rising star Kemi Badenoch is hoping to net some of Ms Braverman’s votes
Former Defence Secretary Ms Mordaunt came under scathing attack from rival camps yesterday
Supporters including Cabinet ministers Kwasi Kwarteng and Therese Coffey cheered as she insisted: “Now is the time to be bold, we cannot have business-as-usual economic management, which has led to low growth for decades.
“I will campaign as a Conservative and I will govern as a Conservative.” Although she voted Remain in 2016, Ms Truss attempted to burnish her born-again Brexit credentials, declaring: “In the face of EU intransigence, I developed the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.”
She also pledged to hike defence spending to three per cent of GDP to “win the fight for freedom at home and across the world”.
And she said: “I stood up to Vladimir Putin by targeting Russia with the toughest sanctions his regime has ever seen.”
In a bid to woo to Tories hell bent on slashing the size of government, she also vowed to take on the civil service blob.
She told a packed air-conditioned room in Westminster: “I don’t give into Whitehall. I don’t give into vested interests. I don’t give into the naysayers.
“I have proved that time and time again by delivering, even when it’s difficult.”
The backing of key Boris Johnson lieutenants Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg has fuelled speculation that Ms Truss is the current PM’s secret preferred candidate to replace him.
She denied that Mr Johnson’s tacit endorsement was “the kiss of death” and stressed her loyalty to the outgoing Tory leader.
She added: “What we need to do now is deliver, deliver, deliver, and I am the person in this race with the record of delivery.”
Yesterday, a Sun poll of more than 14,000 online readers had Ms Mordaunt storming ahead, with 57 per cent backing her to be the next PM.
Mr Sunak came in second with 22 per cent, followed by Ms Truss on eight per cent and Ms Badenoch on six.
