The Guardian:FollowView Profile Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak make final bids to impress Tory members before new PM is chosen – UK politics live

Here is a summary of today’s events.

And that wraps up the very last hustings.

Here are some images from tonight’s event.

The next leader of the Conservative party will be announced on Monday 5 September.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak posing for photos after the final hustings. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters© Provided by The Guardian

Michael Gove (left) and Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murthy (right). Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA© Provided by The Guardian

Liz Truss during the hustings. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA© Provided by The Guardian

Sunak during the hustings. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images© Provided by The Guardian

Sunak is asked about housing.

Sunak says “we have increased the supply of housing.”

He adds; “we need to increase building on brownfield sites and… overcome our aversion to what we call flat -pack housing because modular housing is “faster and cheaper”.

On Scotland he says the Conservatives need to “more actively demonstrate the benefit of the United Kingdom” in Scotland.

He says among other things they must also talk to all the other people in Scotland who don’t vote Conservative.

Ferrari asks Sunak whether he thinks Nicola Sturgeon is “an attention seeker” and Mark Drakeford is “a low-energy Jeremy Corbyn”? (Descriptions that were previously made by Liz Truss).

Sunak says: “We have to respect that these are the legitimately elected leaders of Scotland and Wales and that the UK prime minister has to obviously work with them.”

On the NHS Sunak repeats he will fine those who miss hospital appointments.

Ferrari says you can’t always get through to hospitals to cancel an appointment.

Sunak says that they set up the furlough scheme “in a matter of weeks” so he is convinced they can roll out the proposed fines system.

Sunak is asked about the “greatest sacrifice” he has made to reach the position he’s in.

He says he has been “an appalling husband and father for the last couple of years” as a consequence of his job. But said it was an enormous privilege to have the job.

A question on how Sunak would ensure his government will be the beacon of integrity and ethics.

“I have put restoring trust at the heart of the campaign,” he says.

He says he would reappoint an independent ethics adviser.

On a question from Ferrari on UK border control.

Sunak says: “With my plan I am confident we can get a grip of it. I am prepared to do whatever it takes, legal changes as required, to follow through on my ten-point plan.

He says Priti Patel deserves “credit” for implementing the Rwanda plan.

Ferrari says the plan has not been implemented.

Sunak would not be drawn on whether Patel would keep her job if he became prime minister.

On crime Sunak says he would look at sentencing for “career criminals”. He also criticises Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, regarding crime.

Ferrari says the Met is in special measures, it is not just about changing mayor for crime to be brought down.

Sunak says the last time there was a Conservative mayor, “crime fell”.

Huge cheers for Sunak as the audience begins to ask him questions.

He talks of not borrowing money that “we cannot hope of paying back”.

He says he introduced windfall taxes as chancellor. He says it is the right thing to have done when energy companies are “making billions” because of a war.

“We’ve got it [the windfall tax] in place and I’m glad I did it.”

On the subject of energy rationing, he says “we shouldn’t rule anything out”, and he talks of “optimising” energy usage.

Sunak says inflation will fall “far faster” with his plan than “anyone else’s”.

A British Ukrainian asks a question and is met with a round of applause from the audience.

He asks what she will do as prime minister regarding Ukraine.

She said if she becomes PM, her first call would be to President Zelenskiy.

She says he is “an inspiration”. She says as PM, Ukraine would get the support it needs.

Ferrari introduces Rishi Sunak back to the stage.

Truss says childcare is “too expensive” and government funding needs to be “reformed”.

A question about businesses paying taxes.

Truss says the tax system is too complicated. She says the more complicated a tax system is, the “more it allows loopholes”.

She says she would look at business rates and how we have a simpler tax system so there can be fewer loopholes that can be exploited.

On a question about “ludicrous leftwing nonsense”… being “pushed onto our children”, Truss says “leftwing stuff being peddled in schools is not new”.

She says: “We have to fight it.”

On a transport question, Truss says she would stop smart motorways.

A business owner from the City of London in the audience asks Truss a question on how business can survive the high energy costs.

Truss said she will be “pro business” and she adds she will be looking at how to increase the supply “therefore dealing with the root cause of the issue” rather than just using a “sticking plaster”.

Asked about France and energy rationing Truss says she would rule out energy rationing.

On the decor at Downing Street, namely the highly expensive wallpaper that lines some of the walls: will it be staying? Ferrari asks.

“First of all I am from Yorkshire, I do believe in value,” Truss says.

She adds that her intray will be too full for her to think about wallpaper.

Ferrari relates some of the insults Truss dished out to various leaders.

“Is Donald Trump friend or foe?” Ferrari asks.

She says she is not going to comment “on future potential presidential runners”.

She added that she is “concerned about China’s assertiveness” and that as a country we should not become “dependent” on China.

Now crime.

Ferrari says: “The Conservative party has gone from law and order to crime and no punishment.”

Truss takes another swipe at the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his record on crime in London.

She says Boris Johnson had been a good mayor of London.

She repeats: “We have to get Sadiq Khan out of office.”

Truss says with “hindsight” Boris Johnson will be viewed as a “hugely consequential prime minister”.

On the economy, Truss says: “I am not ruling things in or out, and I am not sitting here writing a future budget.”

She adds that there will be “no new taxes”.

Nick Ferrari has taken to the stage and welcomed Liz Truss back to the stage.

Ferrari has started with inflation, energy bills, NHS and the drought.

“This is a zombie government and you’ve done nothing for the past five weeks?” he says.

Truss refutes this.

Has she focused too much on Ukraine and not enough on Uxbridge?

She says as foreign secretary her job is to “focus on foreign affairs issues”.

Sunak says for him, the most powerful thing the Conservatives have done in recent times are the education reforms “pioneered by Michael Gove”.

Under the Conservatives, the birthright of every child will be a “world-class education”.

He says he will lead a government “competently and seriously” and with “integrity at the heart of everything that we do”.

He adds: “That is the change that I am going to bring … And that is how we are going to win the next general election.”

He pays credit to his mum and dad who are in the audience tonight who “inspired him” into public service and politics.

He thanks his parents for “sacrificing and striving to provide a better life for your kids than you had.”

He also thanks his wife and that he is “incredibly grateful” that she chose to “give up her high heels” and take a chance on the short kid with a backpack.

He says he will stand up to “this woke nonsense” that wants to cancel “our values our history.”

He says he agrees with a lot of what Liz Truss says.

“Liz is a fantastic foreign secretary,’ he says. “We should pay her enormous tribute as she is a proud and passionate conservative.”

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has taken to the stage to introduce Liz Truss.

He says he knows what “disunity” does to a party. He says it leaves a party in the “wilderness”. He has called for unity for the party following the leadership battle.

The leadership candidates are expected to take to the stage at 7.45pm. The hustings is then due to finish at 9pm.

Liz Truss takes to the stage at Wembley Arena to Taylor Swift’s Change.

She says she wants the United Kingdom to have the spirit of the Lionesses.

She is talking of her former school in Leeds and how some of the children were “let down”. She says this is why she got into politics. She wants everyone to have “opportunity”. She says she wants the UK to be an “aspiration nation”.

She says London is the “greatest city on earth” and adds that “to level up you need a successful London”.

But she says London is being let down by [London mayor] Sadiq Khan. He is, she says “anti-everything”. She insists: “We can make London conservative again.”

A video for Rishi Sunak is a riff on his position as underdog as he trails behind Truss in the contest. The tagline for the video: “Britain loves an underdog.”

Huge cheers for Sunak as he takes to the stage

Gove says as Conservatives they need to “help the vulnerable” and that it is targeted in a way that matters.

Gove adds pointedly that Sunak “has always told the truth”.

He says that both Truss and Sunak are “outstanding” and that either of them will make a fantastic prime minister.

“We cannot let Keir Starmer anyway near power,” he says.

He adds: “We need a leader who has courage who has compassion and who has conviction and that this the Rishi I know.”

Michael Gove has taken to the stage and has made reference to his recent trip to Ibiza adding he might dance “later”.

He has started by thanking “our prime minister Boris Johnson”.

“On behalf of all of us, Boris, thank you for your service,” he says.

Truss: “There is too much left-wing identity politics. I’m very clear that a woman is a woman.”

She says she will “protect single-sex spaces like domestic violence shelters”.

She says she is “fed up” with people talking down Britain.

“Those people are wrong,” she adds. “I believe our best days are ahead of us.”

She says that Keir Starmer “doesn’t understand aspiration”.

She says of Sadiq Khan: “We need to remove him too.”

She said she would stop “anti-growth madness”.

On crime, she says she will make sure the police are policing the streets and not Twitter.

A video for Liz Truss is playing.

He says: “You need to look at the character of the individual.”

He says it is the key test, and includes “strength, clarity of purpose and loyalty.”

He says when he looks at Liz he says he gets a sense of “real steel in her backbone”.

That steel reminds him of another person who was once prime minister, he adds.

Some of the souvenirs on sale at London’s Wembley Arena ahead of the hustings tonight.

Souvenir programmes are on sale for £5. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA© Provided by The Guardian

T-shirts for the respective candidates are also on sale. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA© Provided by The Guardian

The former head of the civil service has noted concern at how a “very small number of activists” are choosing the next prime minister, PA Media reports.

Asked whether the current system of MPs and political party members selecting a new premier was the “right way to do it”, former cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell told LBC’s the News Agents podcast: “I think there’s an issue about having a very small number of activists ending up choosing who the prime minister is.”

Lord O’Donnell also said frontrunner candidate Liz Truss faces a “real challenge” if she becomes the next prime minister, as she “wasn’t even the main choice of the Tory MPs”.

Rishi Sunak has been posing for selfies at London’s Wembley Arena ahead of the final hustings in London today.

Rishi Sunak with supporters at Wembley Arena in London. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP© Provided by The Guardian

The 12th and final Tory leadership hustings will take place tonight in London from 7pm tonight.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will go head-to-head in a bid to become the next leader of the Conservative party and prime minister.

Growing numbers of workers are cutting their workplace pension contributions or opting out of schemes entirely because they cannot afford payments – prompting calls for employers to increase the amounts they pay in.

With real wages falling and bills rising sharply, people across the country are looking for ways to reduce spending and supplement their incomes, and the TUC said it was hearing about staff in both the public and private sectors who had concluded they could not afford to save for retirement at the moment.

“Based on what our unions are telling us, anecdotally they are saying quite a lot of people are having to leave schemes,” a spokesperson for the trade union said. “That is public sector and private sector … It’s something we’re hearing quite a lot from the public sector unions.”

Read more here.

Related: More people leaving workplace pension schemes, TUC warns

The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been downgraded to level 2, meaning the virus is in “general circulation” but healthcare pressures and transmission are “declining or stable”, PA Media reports.

The chief medical officers of the UK nations and the national medical director of the NHS in England have jointly recommended that the Covid alert level be moved down from level 3 amid falling cases. They said the Covid-19 wave of the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 was “subsiding”.

Rates of Covid have decreased as have the number of severe cases needing hospital care, they added. However, they said further Covid surges were “likely” as they urged people to take up the offer of vaccination. The autumn booster campaign is due to start within days.

Read more here.

Related: UK downgrades Covid-19 alert level amid falling cases

Almost half of the public think Boris Johnson has done a bad job as prime minister, the worst rating of any post-war British leader, a new poll has found.

Asked to rate the performance of British prime ministers since 1945, 49% of people told pollster Ipsos that Mr Johnson were unimpressed with his time in Downing Street.

The figure was worse than those for both his immediate predecessors with 41% of people saying Theresa May had done a bad job, the second highest total, while David Cameron’s 38% was the third highest total.

However, 33% of the 1,100 people surveyed said he had done a good job in office (the fourth highest), behind Tony Blair on 36%, and Margaret Thatcher on 43%.

Churchill topped the list with 62% of those surveyed saying he had been a good PM, PA Media reports.

Boris Johnson attending a police raid in South London today. Photograph: Simon Dawson/No10 Downing Street© Provided by The Guardian

Keiran Pedley, director of political research at Ipsos, said: “Winston Churchill continues to top our list of prime ministers the public think did a good job in office, followed by Margaret Thatcher.

“Boris Johnson will be reasonably content with finishing fourth on that list but less happy about topping the list for having done a bad job.”

Johnson, who is currently on a farewell tour of the country before he leaves office on Tuesday, was also one of the few post-war prime ministers to have more people say he had done a bad job than a good one.

Members of the National Union of Journalists on the picket line outside the offices of Reach Plc in Canary Wharf, London. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA© Provided by The Guardian

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) says the £14m paid out in half-year dividends to Reach newspaper group shareholders in 2021 would have funded a 7% pay rise for staff, PA Media reports.

Journalists at many of the group’s national and regional titles staged a walkout on Wednesday in a long-running dispute over pay.

Staff are calling for a pay rise of 8.5% to help them cope with the rising cost of living but are at a stalemate with bosses who have capped their offer at 3%.

Employees working at the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Record, Sunday Mail, Western Mail, Irish Star, Bristol Post, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, Birmingham Mail, the Journal, South Wales Evening Post and Reach’s Live websites are on strike.

Stay with us for live coverage of the 12th and final hustings of the Tory leadership race this evening. In the meantime, here’s a roundup of all the day’s politics news so far…

Almost half of people think the cost of living will prove to be a more significant issue for the country over this period than the Covid pandemic.

Asked by YouGov what in future will be thought of as the biggest challenge faced by present-day governments, 47% named the cost of living.

Only 14% said the pandemic, while 34% said both would be equally challenging.

Ditching the UK’s green and social regulations in the bonfire of red tape that both Tory leadership candidates have promised would risk irreparable damage to the natural environment, people’s health, and workers’ rights, a group of 40 organisations has warned.

The organisations, which include the National Consumer Federation, the British Safety Council, the RSPB, and the Wildlife Trusts, have signed a letter to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak calling on them to keep what they say are vital regulations.

“This is real stuff affecting people’s everyday lives,” said Emma Rose, director of Unchecked, a coalition of organisations making the case for strong public protection. “Strong protections and rules are part of Britain’s success story. They uphold high standards across public life, protect the vulnerable, underpin trust between businesses and consumers, and create a level playing field for businesses.”

Real the full story here:

Related: Tory leadership contenders urged not to ditch vital regulations

The UK’s Covid-19 alert level has been downgraded from level three to level two.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the move was jointly recommended by the chief medical officers of the four UK nations.

The alert level is determined by how many Covid cases there are at a given point in time and how fast it is spreading.

The system ranges from level one, indicating Covid-19 is no longer present in the UK, to level five, indicating a risk that health services will be overwhelmed.

A level two alert means that “Covid-19 is in general circulation but direct Covid-19 healthcare pressures and transmission are declining or stable”.

The alert level was moved down to level three from level four in May.

Labour MPs are expressing solidarity with Royal Mail, BT, and media workers striking across the country.

It comes after weeks of pressure on the Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to back recent strikes and allow his frontbenchers to appear on picket lines.

Andy McDonald, a former shadow employment minister, tweeted photos of himself on two picket lines, writing: “Proud to be out with @CWUnews on the Royal Mail & BT pickets today in solidarity with their struggle for proper pay.”

Sharon Hodgson, who serves as Starmer’s parliamentary private secretary, wrote that journalists striking at media company Reach PLC “deserve fair recognition”.

“Reach should return to the table to resolve this dispute,” she said.

Karl Turner retweeted photos of a picket line of journalists from Reach outlet Hull Live.

“Solidarity with striking Journalists, sorry I couldn’t attend in person,” he wrote.

The UK and Australia must build on a new trade deal to “stand up for liberty”, the international trade secretary is expected to say as she visits the Commonwealth country.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan is the first cabinet minister to visit Australia since it elected a new government in May, and is meeting with counterparts and business leaders to promote the UK-Australia trade deal signed at the end of last year.

In a speech to the Australian-British Chamber of Commerce, Trevelyan is expected to say the UK’s friendship with Australia is “more important than ever”.

“Together, we show the world that we will stand up for liberty, that we fight back against tyranny, and we will defend our societies’ shared values.

“Our free trade agreement opens the doors to even greater collaboration and we welcome Australia’s ongoing commitment to a free, stable and open Indo-Pacific region.”

Official estimates have previously suggested the trade deal will produce an increase of between 0.01% and 0.02% of GDP over the long run.

Critics have expressed doubt as to whether it will produce any noticeable fall in prices, as the government has claimed, and also that UK farmers could struggle to compete with Australian producers.

Two leaders of the Conservative party in the UK’s devolved parliaments have called on the next prime minister to announce significant packages of support to help businesses cover rising energy costs.

Douglas Ross and Andrew Davies, the Tory leaders in Scotland and Wales respectively, were both speaking to Times Radio before the announcement of their party’s new national leader on Monday.

Ross said businesses were facing an “extremely difficult time” and would need similar support to that provided during the Covid pandemic.

“I know businesses are looking at whether they close for the winter and whether they’ll even reopen again,” he said.

“I know speaking to both candidates that their government will look at that extremely closely because we need to do an awful lot to support … businesses through this crisis”.

David said he would like to see the interventions made by government during the 2008 crash used as a model.

“In effect, there wasn’t an effective lending market,” he said. “There wasn’t an effective financial services market to support businesses and support the country.

“That’s where the government next week needs to be positive and proactive.”

A former political strategist and speechwriter to Tony Blair is joining the Labour leader’s office as the party begins to plan for its next general election campaign, Politico reports.

Peter Hyman served as a political strategist and speechwriter in No 10 between 1997 and 2003 before leaving to retrain as a teacher, and has since founded a school and a number of education-based organisations.

He has previously been critical of both Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn, who preceded Sir Keir Starmer as party leaders, for being unwilling to defend the record of the New Labour government.

In a 2015 essay for the Observer, he said there was a “gaping hole in the centre and centre-left of British politics that has been left unfilled for several years”.

“The idea of New Labour was not to be a good opposition party, to protest loudly or have an ‘influence’ over events, but, rather, to take and hold on to the levers of power,” he wrote.

“Today, there is a need more than ever before for a modern, progressive, values-driven party: a new ‘project’ that does not try to recreate New Labour, because the world has moved on, but learns from it. It would have those three ingredients for success.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev, saying Vladimir Putin is undoing the good work he did for the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Speaking while on a visit to a police station in south-east London, Johnson said: “Mikhail Gorbachev is one of those people who changed the world and unquestionably changed it for the better.

“When you look at what he did to make Europe whole, free, to give freedom to the countries of the former Soviet Union, it was a quite extraordinary thing.

“What I worry about today is that the current leadership in Moscow is intent on undoing the good that Mikhail Gorbachev did, and is intent on a revenge-driven attempt to recreate that Soviet empire.

“And that’s the tragedy, something that I think Mikhail Gorbachev would have thought was absolutely unthinkable, unwarranted, and irrational.”

A funding deal for Transport for London will prompt further strike action, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has warned.

The announcement of a long-term funding arrangement by the government and TfL on Tuesday would “attack” tube workers pay and conditions, the leading rail union said, according to PA news.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said:

This deal negotiated in secret by TfL and government ministers will likely see our members pensions attacked and further pay restraint in the future, coupled with driverless trains. Grant Shapps’ attack on tube workers would be unacceptable at any time but in an escalating, cost-of-living crisis it is shameful and will be resisted through further strike action.

This evening, the RMT and other transport unions are holding a rally, with US senator Bernie Sanders in attendance.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said:

This deal more than delivers for Londoners and even matches the mayor’s own pre-pandemic spending plans, but for this to work, the mayor must follow through on his promises to get TfL back on a steady financial footing, stop relying on government bailouts and take responsibility for his actions.

The official public inquiry into Covid-19 will now begin scrutinising how Boris Johnson and his government handled the pandemic, it was announced on Wednesday.

The delayed investigation has been broken into modules, with teams investigating and commissioning research on different issues.

The second module will have a particular focus on early 2020 and the decisions taken by Johnson and the cabinet, as well as decisions taken in the devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

“My team and I will establish what was understood about Covid-19 at the time, what information was available in each of the four UK nations and how and why key decisions were made, especially early in the pandemic,” said its chair, Lady Hallett, first appointed to the position in December 2021.

Read more here:

Related: Covid inquiry to examine how Boris Johnson’s cabinet handled pandemic

During a visit to Barrow-in-Furness, Boris Johnson was questioned on reports that the former British citizen Shamima Begum was smuggled into Syria for Islamic State by a Canadian spy whose role was covered up by security services.

Johnson told reporters:

We never discuss intelligence issues. You wouldn’t expect me to comment on that.

Ottawa is accused of withholding information about Begum’s whereabouts while the Metropolitan police scrambled an international search for her.

However, it is stated that Canadian intelligence did not learn that Begum had been recruited until four days after she left Britain, when she had already crossed the border into Syria.

The Begum family’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, argues that the teenager was trafficked out of the country. The suggestion that a western intelligence asset may have been involved, including organising bus tickets for the schoolgirl, will reignite the debate over the removal of her British citizenship.

Fears over the British economy falling into a long recession and the likelihood of higher public spending to cope with the cost of living crisis have sent the interest rate on Britain’s debts soaring towards its biggest monthly rise in almost 40 years.

Ten-year UK government bond yields, which are a proxy for the effective interest rate on public borrowing – were on course on Wednesday for the biggest monthly rise since September 1986 after an increase to 2.78%.

Heaping pressure on the incoming prime minister to address the Treasury’s worsening financial outlook, some analysts predicted the yield would increase before the end of the year to at least 3%.

It comes as Rishi Sunak warned there were growing risks of financial markets losing faith in the British economy amid soaring inflation and elevated levels of government debt, in an attack on his Conservative leadership rival Liz Truss’s tax and spending plans.

Read more here:

Related: 10-year borrowing costs for UK set for biggest monthly rise since 1986

Dozens of bishops from drought-ravaged east Africa have appealed to the UK government to urgently get more funding to those in need, warning that Britain’s rapid response to the Ukraine crisis must not come at the expense of lives elsewhere.

As the worst drought for four decades tightens its grip on Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, with millions facing acute hunger, the group of 44 Anglican bishops criticised the international community for not paying attention to early warnings or backing up rhetoric with sufficient funds.

“This must change,” write the faith leaders in an open letter seen by the Guardian. “Every day, more lives are lost, and more are at risk.”

Read the full story here.

Somalis escaping drought-stricken areas carry their belongings at a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu Photograph: Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP© Provided by The Guardian

The Liberal Democrats are rushing through plans to confirm a candidate for Michael Gove’s Surrey seat amid speculation that the former levelling up secretary is considering quitting parliament, which would spark a by-election.

The party’s application window for selection for the seat, held by Gove since 2005, closes on Wednesday evening and the selection process is expected to take two weeks.

Lib Dem officials are planning for a possibly imminent campaign in which the party would fight on issues including the state of local hospitals and plans to drill for gas locally.

Speculation that Gove might step down has intensified since he backed Rishi Sunak to be prime minister and said he didn’t expect to be in government again, although a Conservative source said it was not true Gove planned to quit.

Read the full story here.

Sir Keir Starmer has defended choosing not to join rail workers who will strike during Labour’s annual party conference next month, and hit back at accusations he is “spineless”.

The Labour leader said running a trade union and trying to become prime minister were “different jobs” and he did not want to “lose that focus on getting into power”.

Having been branded spineless by Sharon Graham, the head of Unite, for his opposition to standing on picket lines during a series of industrial disputes earlier this summer, Starmer insisted: “I do support unions, I support the right to strike.”

However, he told the Jeremy Vine show on Channel 5: “I respect Sharon, she’s doing her job. Her job as a trade union leader is to stick up for her members and to ensure they get the best possible deal.

“My job is leader of the Labour party, I want a Labour government, I want to be a Labour prime minister.

Starmer said he was “not focused” on the criticism levied at him by critics on the left but “focused intently on winning the next general election, because we can talk about what we’re going to do up hill and down dale – but until we win an election, we won’t do it”.

He said those who were a “cheerleader” for Jeremy Cobyn had failed by leading Labour to its worst defeat since 1935 and added: “If we carry on like that, we are letting millions of people down.”

Starmer also said oil and gas companies who had made “really excessive profits” should be hit with a fresh windfall tax to pay for Labour’s plan for stopping the energy price cap rising by 80% in October.

When bills rise again in April, Starmer said “we’ll have to put in place another plan” but a major long-term goal should be to increase the insulation of homes.

“We can’t keep saying: ‘Well it takes too long, so it can’t get started’,” Starmer added.

A caller who complained about the tariffs faced by those on prepayment metres was also told by Starmer the premium was “outrageous”. “It can’t be justified and it’s got to go,” Starmer said.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association has announced a countrywide 24-hour strike as part of an ongoing dispute over pay, job security, and working conditions.

The union said that staff at nine train operating companies as well as Network Rail would strike from midday on Monday 26 September until midday the following day.

The action will coincide with the Labour party conference, scheduled to take place in Liverpool between 25 and 28 September.

The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has faced criticism in recent weeks over a decision not to allow his frontbenchers to join striking workers on picket lines.

The TSSA union leader, Manuel Cortes, said: “I will be standing on our picket line in Liverpool and will be encouraging fellow delegates and Labour MPs to do likewise, so they can rightly show they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those fighting the Tories’ cost of living crisis.”

Liz Truss has set out plans to “deliver for London” ahead of the final hustings of the Tory leadership race in the capital this evening.

The current frontrunner said she wanted to “put an end to union barons’ stronghold on the capital’s vital services” and cut crime by delivering on a 2019 manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 more police officers.

She also claimed London’s businesses remained “restrained by EU regulations that hold the City, and its contribution to the entire country, back” and that she would “make the most of Brexit to really unshackle the City of London”.

“When London does well, the UK does too,” she said. “We were elected in 2019 to make sure every corner of the UK succeeds and has access to the best opportunities.

“Delivering for every part of London and allowing this great global city to thrive is vital to achieving this, and as prime minister I will endeavour to do so.”

Appointing the next prime minister at Balmoral will need some “nifty coordination” by the Cabinet Office, according to one constitutional expert.

Dr Catherine Haddon, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, said the change would lengthen the new prime minister’s journey back to Downing Street and delay the customary speech on the steps of Number Ten.

“New PM being appointed at Balmoral has some implications for the transition that will need nifty coordination by the Cabinet Office,” she wrote on Twitter.

“All transitions are a sort of managed chaos, so this is just a new dimension… but will prob change usual timings on gov formation.

“Though formally announced today, this has been known for a while, so Cab Office will have had some time to prepare, and leadership teams to plan for it also.”

The Queen will receive the prime minister, Boris Johnson, on Tuesday 6 September before holding an audience with the new prime minister, Buckingham Palace has said.

Voting in the Tory leadership contest will close on Friday, with the result to be announced on Monday.

The 96-year-old monarch, who has faced ongoing mobility issues, traditionally holds audiences with outgoing and incoming premiers at Buckingham Palace.

The latest survey from polling company Delta has shown a small increase in Labour support.

Asked their current voting intention, 44% of respondents said they would vote Labour, up from 43% in last week’s poll.

That compared with 31% who said they would vote Conservative and 12% who currently back the Liberal Democrats.

Mikhail Gorbachev was sincere in his desire to see communism reformed, one of Margaret Thatcher’s key foreign policy advisers has said.

Charles Powell, who served as Thatcher’s private secretary for foreign affairs from 1983 until 1991, was responding to the news of the former Soviet leader’s death at the age of 91.

“Gorbachev has to bear some share of responsibility for the way the communist system performed. At least up until the time he became leader. After all, he was a rising functionary,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.

“But I think he was definitely sincere in wanting to reform communism. I doubt he ever really wanted to abolish it, but he wanted to make it more efficient, to serve the people better.

“And that was despite Margaret Thatcher telling him repeatedly and very bluntly that it was a waste of time, that communism would never work, that he would be better to aim at moving slowly towards a market-based system.”

Asked whether western leaders could have done more to help Gorbachev to introduce his reforms, Powell added: “The view was taken that that was for Mr Gorbachev to sort out within the system.

“We could advise him as to what seemed to us to be in his best interests, but at the end of the day he had to make his own future there.”

Labour’s pledge to freeze the energy price cap would save Scottish households £2.6bn, the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said.

The party’s plan would keep the cap at its current level of £1,971, meaning an expected 80% rise in October would not go ahead. The measure would be funded with a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.

Speaking ahead of a visit to an offshore renewable energy research centre in Fife, Reeves said: “Families across Scotland are scared about how they’ll get through the winter with bills through the roof.

“Scotland is being failed by two absent governments. The Tories are missing in action while the SNP are acting more like commentators than a government.

“Labour’s plan to save households in Scotland £1,000 this winter and invest in sustainable British energy to bring bills down in the long-term is a direct response to the national economic emergency that is leaving families fearing for the future.”

Prime ministerial hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will be in London tonight for the final hustings of the Tory leadership race.

Voting among members will close at 5pm on Friday, with a final result to be announced on Monday and Truss still looking overwhelmingly likely to emerge as the winner.

Ahead of the event, Truss tweeted her thanks to those members who have backed her to “unite our party, deliver for our country and win the next election”.

Sunak said he was “so grateful to all the people who turned up, signed up and helped us get our message out”.

“We’re in the final days and every vote counts,” he said.

Sir Keir Starmer has said his job is different to that of a trade union leader and that he doesn’t want to “lose focus” on getting his party elected.

It comes after weeks of pressure on the Labour leader to allow his frontbenchers to appear on picket lines.

Speaking on Jeremy Vine on 5, Starmer said: “I completely understand why people are voting to go on strike. I understand why they’re struggling. Wages have been stagnant for the best part of 10 years.

“But my job is different. My job is to get a Labour government elected. The single best thing I could do for [the people striking] is to get a Labour government elected.

“I want to be the Labour prime minister. You can’t sit around a cabinet table resolving issues and then walk on to a picket line. They’re different jobs.

“That is the thing that is going to change millions of lives for the better. I can’t lose that focus.”

Good morning and welcome to the politics live blog.

Boris Johnson has said Britain is “absolutely not” broken at the end of his premiership, and claimed that “this country has got an incredible future and has everything going for it”.

Asked outside a police station in Lewisham, south London, whether Britain “was broken” in the final days of his leadership, he responded: “Absolutely not. This country has got an incredible future and has everything going for it.

“Look at the place that people want to invest in. Which is the country that attracts more venture capital investment now than China? It’s the United Kingdom.

“Which country has, I think, more billion-pound start-up tech companies than France, than Germany, than Israel put together? It is the United Kingdom.

“Why do people want to come here? Because it is the place to be.

“What we’re doing now, and what I’m proud that we’ve done over the last three years or so, is put in a lot of things that will make this country fit for the future.”