Sharjah24 – AFP: The bruising race between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to become Britain's next prime minister steps up a gear on Monday with the mailing out of ballots to Conservative party members.
With voting set to begin to find Boris Johnson's replacement, bookmakers have Foreign Secretary Truss as heavy favourite ahead of former finance minister Sunak.
The pair have already spent a fractious two weeks on the campaign trail, where they have clashed repeatedly, particularly over their economic plans.
Truss has promised to slash taxes in an attempt to revive Britain's spluttering economy and ease the burden of spiralling prices.
Sunak, who steered the UK economy through the pandemic, said Truss's plans were "fantasy economics" that would fuel inflation and heap further strain on public finances struggling to recover from the pandemic.
But trailing in polls with the all-important party members, Sunak last week performed a significant U-turn by announcing a plan to scrap VAT on energy bills.
And on Sunday he promised to cut the basic rate of income tax by 20 percent before the end of the next parliament, which would be December 2029, at the latest.
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