Tees Valley mayor Houchen warns against long Tory leadership battle

The Conservatives should not spend too long on a protracted leadership debate that would be a “waste of time” and could risk appearing selfindulgent, the Tees Valley mayor, Ben Houchen , has said.

- Jessica Elgot

His comments came as former Conservative candidates rounded on the former prime minister Liz Truss after she attacked the leadership of Rishi Sunak in the failed general election campaign, saying he had trashed her legacy in offi ce.

Two ex-candidates, the former MP Conor Burns and the former Tory adviser Rupert Harrison , said Truss should stop her interventions.

Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that Tories had “paid the electoral price” for her successor’s errors, but Harrison, a former adviser to George Osborne and Sunak who lost to the Liberal Democrats in his bid to be an MP , said: “As someone who just lost a seat, it was clear from the doorstep that her record was one of the main reasons we were so soundly beaten. No individual in history has done more damage to the Conservative party.”

Burns, who lost his Bournemouth West seat to Labour , told LBC that those close to Truss should intervene. “ Those who are close to her are letting her down by not telling her the truth . She is preposterous, she is toxic, she needs to be quiet .”