With continuing talk of a leadership challenge, PM and business secretary have little to say at stage-managed praise-filled event
Before we go to the SME Connect conference in Warwickshire, a quick “previously in Tory endgame”: Rishi Sunak was under pressure, as even Conservative MPs who thought that however bad he was, changing leaders would be worse, were starting to revise their view. Penny Mordaunt’s name had been floated, but she was commonly thought of as the stalking horse candidate, for the more plausible Kemi Badenoch (at this point, you just have to imagine inverted commas round all the adjectives, a kind of “who-are-these-people?” confetti). Rishi had threatened a general election if people didn’t stop challenging his leadership. Kemi had told everyone not to be silly.
And then the pair arrived before the burghers of Coventry and Warwickshire, to tell them how great the Conservatives were going to be for small businesses. Sunak had three main announcements: cutting taxes, cutting red tape and creating 20,000 apprenticeships. It was pretty dry fare.
