According to reports, Rishi Sunak’s staff is upset that postal ballots for Tory members would be given out in the first week of August, giving him less time to influence them.
According to sources, the former chancellor’s team objected to the timing because Liz Truss leads him among the voters who make the ultimate choice.
It implies that Mr. Sunak has barely a fortnight to win the race and unseat her as party leader and prime minister.
After Mr. Sunak’s associate Oliver Dowden resigned from the position, Andrew Stephenson, the new Tory chairman and a Boris Johnson supporter, took control.
The Foreign Secretary, who remained in Mr. Johnson’s Cabinet after Mr. Sunak resigned, is thought to have Mr. Johnson’s support.
‘Rishi’s team are genuinely pissed off at how early the ballots are going out and made it very clear to CCHQ,’ a Tory source alleged.
They had hoped for more time to make up the ground he has lost with the members.
Sources close to Mr. Sunak, however, claimed the team was “extremely casual” and cited party regulations that state members can vote twice, with just the most recent effort counting.
According to a YouGov study of Tory members conducted by The Times, Mr. Sunak would trail his rival in the leadership election’s membership phase.
When given a choice between the two, 35% went with Mr. Sunak and 54% with Miss Truss.
Members will receive ballots between August 1 and August 5, and while the election’s results won’t be published until September 5, many are likely to vote right away.
It implies that early-game occurrences in the competition can become overly significant.
The first hustings is scheduled to take place in the North of England three days after the live discussion, which will be broadcast by the BBC in Stoke-on-Trent on Monday.
Two hustings every week will be held across the nation for the remainder of the campaign.
New pledges about the lowering of income tax are anticipated from Mr. Sunak.
The increases in corporation tax and national insurance that he implemented will be undone, according to Miss Truss.
According to Mr. Sunak’s supporters, he may propose raising the thresholds or pushing forward a 1p income tax cut to the following year.
Even while Miss Truss is still in the lead, the most recent poll indicates a slight improvement from last week’s YouGov survey, in which Mr. Sunak was 24 rather than 19 percentage points behind Miss Truss.
The former chancellor would lose, according to a ConservativeHome poll released over the weekend, albeit by a slimmer margin of 42% to 49%.