Truss can outshine low-watt Starmer and finish him off

THE TORY leadership contest is as good as over. While it formally has several weeks to run, Liz Truss has established a decisive superiority over Rishi Sunak since they were confirmed as the final two candidates.

- Patrick O’Flynn

With ballot papers dropping through the letterboxes of Conservative grassroots members in the next few days, the timing of Truss’s surge could not be more perfect as experience tells us most will have posted back their votes by this time next week.

Opinion polls of Tory members, the bookies’ odds, performances in head-to-head debates and at the first hustings, new endorsements from senior figures and anecdotal accounts of grassroots sentiment all point to a crushing Truss victory.

Inside the Truss camp they will be determined to keep up campaign momentum and ward off complacency, but the tide of sentiment carrying their candidate along is now so strong that they must also turn their attention to planning her crucial first hundred days in office.

By the time the Commons rises for its Christmas recess the public’s general impression of Ms Truss and her administration will largely be fixed. So she must start preparing for a formidable array of challenges. Appointing a Cabinet that makes best use of available talent and communicates a sense to the country that a new government is getting a grip will be the first big task.