DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Liz Truss boosterism puts her in the driving seat

When a politician pledges to do something in seven years’ time, it should invariably be taken with a large pinch of salt.

If a week is a long time in politics, seven years ranks as a geological epoch.

So many will see Rishi Sunak’s promise to cut 4p off the basic rate of income tax by the end of the next parliament more as wishful thinking than firm policy.

We don’t doubt his intent. But he stood in 2019 on a manifesto promise not to raise national insurance, then did just that.

Who can say his latest pledge would be any more reliable?

Miss Truss is growing steadily stronger in this contest and is clearly relishing the hustings

With voting forms now having gone out to Tory members for the final ballot on who should become party leader and prime minister, we understand why Mr Sunak is trying to seize the narrative on tax.

While rival Liz Truss pledges immediate cuts, his cautious approach is not cutting much ice with families who are struggling with a cost of living crunch right now.

There’s no doubt Miss Truss is growing steadily stronger in this contest and is clearly relishing the hustings.

In today’s Daily Mail she fleshes out parts of her prospectus for a freer, smaller-state, lower-tax Britain.

She would not support new ‘sin’ taxes or ‘BOGOF’ bans on calorific food and drink, preferring education and personal responsibility to official nannying.

In 2019 Rishi Sunak made a manifesto promise not to raise national insurance, then did just that.

She plans to strengthen immigration controls but abandon the indiscriminate net targets introduced under David Cameron. And she commits to a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment within the party and vows to cut £11billion in civil service waste.

Miss Truss has already proved as Foreign Secretary both her steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Vladimir Putin’s barbarism and her determination to stand equally firm against EU bullying over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

With each passing day, more senior Tories are declaring their support for Miss Truss – most recently former leadership contenders Penny Mordaunt and Nadhim Zahawi.

A Boris Johnson loyalist to the end, Miss Truss is mapping out a ‘boosterist’ agenda to take forward his legacy. It is clearly resonating with the parliamentary party and the grassroots membership.

Keir in a quandary

So does Keir Starmer back the current epidemic of strikes or not? Who can tell?

Just days after sacking one shadow minister, Sam Tarry, after he visited a picket line, Sir Keir allows another, Lisa Nandy, to do the same with apparent impunity.

If he expects ever to be taken seriously, the Labour leader must decide once and for all whose side he’s on – the hard-Left union barons or the long-suffering public.

This constant push-me, pull-you vacillation is beyond embarrassing.

Not singing any more

Having won the women’s European football championship eight times since 1989, the Germans clearly seem to think it should now be theirs by right.

How else to explain the graceless reaction of their media (and manager) to England’s glorious and well-deserved victory in Sunday’s final.

Because Germany had a first-half penalty claim turned down – hardly a rare phenomenon at any level of the game – they claim to have been ‘cheated’.

England’s glorious and well-deserved victory in Sunday’s Women’s Euro final

One paper even harked back to England’s disputed third goal in the 1966 World Cup final as proof that referees are against them – conveniently forgetting we won that game 4-2. Talk about sore losers. Whoever knew the Germans were such cry babies?

As it’s usually England having to make excuses for falling short, it’s hard not to take some satisfaction at their bellyaching. One might almost call it schadenfreude.

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