Setback for Sunak, aide switches sides to Truss

London, August 13

A senior Cabinet minister, who was backing Rishi Sunak in the UK prime ministerial contest, on Saturday became the first high-profile figure to switch sides to the opposing camp of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

Sir Robert Buckland said he now believed Truss was the “right person to take the country forward” and that her plans were the best shot for the UK to reach its potential as a “high-growth, high-productivity economy”.

The minister said he had initially backed Rishi Sunak because he felt that, during the initial parliamentary rounds where Conservative Party MPs decided on the final two candidates, the former Chancellor was “embodying what we needed”. “As the campaign has moved on, and as I have listened carefully to both candidates, I have thought deeply about the issues that move me and what I want to see the next PM doing,” writes Buckland.

“Changing your mind on an issue like this is not an easy thing to do, but I have decided that Liz Truss is the right person to take the country forward,” he said. The defection comes on the back of surveys that show Truss in a clear lead over her British Indian contender in the race to succeed Boris Johnson as Tory leader and Prime Minister.