British Conservative leadership candidates turn against each other as race heats up

The race to succeed Boris Johnson as British Prime Minister has only just begun but it has already turned nasty as the growing list of candidates turn on each other.

In the last few days, the mud has been flying as candidates and their backers openly criticize each other and, according to media reports, prepare secret dossiers listing marital affairs and other transgressions by their rivals. The bitterness has gotten so bad that some senior party figures have expressed concern about the lasting damage it could cause.

“Conservatives should be careful not to spend their time undermining some of their own leading figures,” said former party leader William Hague.

Mr. Johnson resigned as Conservative party leader last Thursday and said that he wanted to stay on as Prime Minister until his successor was chosen.

His announcement kicked off the leadership contest which starts with Conservative members of Parliament voting among themselves to nominate two candidates. That balloting could take several days as the field is narrowed down to the two finalists but party officials hope to have it completed before July 21 when Parliament recesses for the summer. Party members will then select the winner in a vote expected to take place next month.

The race is wide open and so far nine MPs have launched leadership bids. Two more cabinet ministers are expected to join the race in the coming days.

The frontrunner for now is former chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. He resigned from cabinet last week and helped push Mr. Johnson out on Thursday. On Friday, Mr. Sunak released a slick video on Twitter announcing his bid to take over.

Mr. Sunak, 42, has focused on his immigrant background and his work during the COVID-19 pandemic to help employees and businesses. He has also defended introducing several tax hikes which have been unpopular among many Tory MPs. “Do we confront this moment with honesty, seriousness and determination or do we tell ourselves comforting fairy tales that might make us feel better in the moment but will leave our children worse off tomorrow,” Mr. Sunak said in his video.

His comments have drawn sharp rebukes from fellow Conservatives. “We have had a high-tax chancellor and I belong to a low-tax party and I want to see us getting back to being a low-tax party,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Minister of State for Brexit Opportunities.

Several other candidates – including former health secretary Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid, a former chancellor – have said they would reverse the tax hikes. “No Conservative should offer unfunded tax cuts. I think that no Conservative should raise taxes either,” Mr. Hunt told the BBC on Sunday. “What you need is smart tax cuts that will grow the economy.”

The Sunday Telegraph also reported that a memo circulating among Tory MPs chastises Mr. Sunak for his tax policies and for betraying Mr. Johnson. The memo decried Mr. Sunak for his “arrogance, indolence, ignorance” and “schoolboy errors.” And it added: “There is nothing Conservative about the ‘Big Tax and Big Spend’ agenda of Rishi Sunak.”

Mr. Sunak’s supporters have shot back that he is the only candidate with a credible policy platform. Mr. Sunak is “an outstanding individual who’s actually got a plan to see the spending of the government controlled over time, said Tory MP Liam Fox, a former secretary of state for international trade.

Tory MP Mark Spencer, who also supports Mr. Sunak, suggested that other candidates may have their own dark secrets. With Mr. Sunak, “there are no skeletons in that cupboard.”

Other candidates have also come under fire.

Within hours of announcing her candidacy on Sunday, Penny Mordaunt, the Minister of State for Trade Policy, faced questions about her support for transgender rights which has become a hot topic among Tories. Rivals quickly circulated comments she made last year in the House of Commons: “Trans men are men, and trans women are women.”

Ms. Mordaunt, 49, immediately sought to clarify her position. “Some people born male and who have been through the gender recognition process are also legally female,” she said on Twitter on Sunday. “That DOES NOT mean they are biological women, like me.” She added: “Some want to damage my reputation for whatever reason. They want to depict me as ‘woke.’ ”

Another candidate, Nadhim Zahawi, who took over as Chancellor last week from Mr. Sunak, has come under attack over his personal finances.

Mr. Zahawi, 55, immigrated to Britain from Iraq as a child and had a successful career in business before entering politics. He launched his leadership bid on Saturday vowing “to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from.”

Media reports over the weekend indicated that tax officials have begun investigating Mr. Zahawi’s financial arrangements and his use of tax havens. A spokesman for Mr. Zahawi said he’d done nothing wrong. “All Mr. Zahawi’s financial interests have been properly and transparently declared,” the spokesman said.

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