For weeks Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been tossing red meat in the face of Tory members in a bid to woo them.
Some have expressed their fears that the two leadership candidates are distracted from the cost of living crisis as winter approaches and Brits will struggle to heat their homes, let alone eat.
Ms Truss has spent hustings attacking the media, insisting she is a “plain talking Yorkshire woman”, and justifying embarrassing policy U-turns.
Her rival, Mr Sunak chose to make jokes about his height while claiming he has the answers to the crises that gathered momentum while he was Chancellor.
But amid the circus are policies that, once out in the wild with their proponent as PM, could do serious damage to some. Here are some of the most divisive – often deliberately divisive – policies they’ve announced.
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A crackdown on benefit claimants
Both Tory candidates to be Prime Minister have threatened a crackdown on benefit claimants – with Rishi Sunak warning he will be “much tougher”.
Multi-millionaire Mr Sunak said he will tear up rules that put Universal Credit claimants on a ‘light touch’ work search if they work more than nine hours a week.
“If there are hours to do, if there’s a job going, people should have to take the job, as opposed to just being able to stay on benefits”, he claimed.
Despite 41% of Universal Credit claimants already having a job, he told a hustings in Belfast: “Ultimately, it’s your taxes and someone who’s working very hard’s taxes that are paying for that.”
And Ms Truss responded to calls to “fix the benefits system” by saying she would “change the incentives” under the benefit to push more people into work.
Their comments – at a Tory leadership hustings in Belfast – appear to be taking the Tories’ existing crackdown on social security and pushing it further.
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Ministers have already announced changes to make Universal Credit tougher and sanction more people in the wake of Covid, when claims soared.
That is despite campaigners raising fears about the changes, saying the sanctions system is “over-zealous” and people who fall through the cracks will be punished.
Firstly, people must now take jobs outside their expertise just four weeks after they claim, instead of three months. This launched in February and nearly 110,000 people are now being sanctioned per month.
Secondly, on September 26 the “light-touch” regime Mr Sunak was referring to will be narrowed. Light-touch checks will only apply to people working more than 12 hours a week on minimum wage, rather than nine hours.
Mr Sunak has said he wants to go much further and double this threshold, to around 18 hours a week.
Liz Truss
Refusing to roll out cost of living payments
Ms Truss has refused to help Brits through the cost of living crisis by guaranteeing they will get cost-of-living payments.
The Foreign Secretary insists she wants to help people who “do the right thing” – people who (in her words) “go out to work, people who set up their own businesses, people who are contributing to the economy”.
Ms Truss has said she doesn’t want to give “handouts” and is instead focusing on removing the green levies on energy bills, and cutting National Insurance to the tune of £59 a year for minimum wage workers.
This approach overlooks pensioners disabled Brits and the lowest paid. She hasn’t ruled out cost of living payments. But Rishi Sunak said she is “divorced from reality” as experts warn bills could skyrocket to £4,200 a year from January.
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Ban public sector strikes and increase the vote needed for strike action to 50%
The minimum notice period for strike action would be raised from two weeks to four weeks, and a cooling-off period would be implemented so that unions can no longer strike as many times as they like in the six-month period after a ballot.
Ms Truss would also put an end to members receiving tax-free payments from trade unions on the days they are on strike.
The current minimum threshold for voting in favour of strike action is 40%.
The Foreign Secretary plans to introduce new legislation in her first 30 days of power to guarantee a minimum level of service on vital national infrastructure. It’s understood officials are already working on it.
The outgoing Prime Minister had already been working on new laws to make industrial action such as rail strikes illegal unless a certain number of staff are working.
She was accused of taking “potshots at workers” with this policy.
Cut to National Insurance will hand minimum wage workers just 76p a month – and £93 for the richest
In a bid to woo Tory voters, Ms Truss has said she will cut taxes immediately after she gets the keys to No10.
She said she will reverse the recent increase in National Insurance contributions to help struggling Brits in the deepening cost of living crisis.
But analysts have found it would save the poorest tenth of households on the lowest incomes an average of just 76p a month.
The study from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change suggested the same tax cut would leave the richest tenth of households better off by £93 a month.
Rishi Sunak rolled out the NI rise as Chancellor, and Ms Truss backed the move.
But Mr Sunak’s supporters claim the tax cut “won’t touch the sides for most families who will need help most.”
Roll out Bill of rights
Campaigners have warned that the Tories plan to roll out a ‘Bill of Rights’ will actually weaken Brits’ rights.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced the plan in June claiming it will “reinforce freedom of speech, enable us to deport more foreign offenders and protect the public from dangerous criminals”.
Its larger aim is to reduce the influence of the ECHR and the European Court of Human Rights and enable policies like the Rwanda scheme to go ahead.
Ms Truss vows to go forward the the plans which she told Tory members allow “us to control our own borders”.
Ms Truss backs the Government’s controversial plan to deport some migrants to Rwanda and will pursue similar schemes in other countries.
The £120million bid to deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats is yet to deport any asylum seekers because of legal challenges.
Ms Truss suggested extending the scheme to other countries – despite widespread criticism of the existing plan, which has been dubbed costly and cruel by critics.
Increasing child to staff ratios
Plans to increase child to staff ratios in childcare were rubbished under Mr Johnson’s Government and were attacked when Ms Truss included them in her leadership plans.
The leadership hopeful plans to raise the number of kids over the age of two looked after by one member of staff.
The Government consulted parents and childcare providers and it was met with fury.
More than 4,300 of the more than 5,800 nurseries and pre-schools that responded were strongly opposed, while just over half of the 2,146 childminders who responded were against the plans.
The TUC warned cutting staff ratios will put more pressure on underpaid and struggling teachers, which would not be safe.
Labour has questioned whether the plan to lower the nursery staff-to-child ratio in England will make a “meaningful difference” to the cost of childcare for families.
Bridget Phillipson, the Shadow education secretary said the “pathetic announcement” will fail to tackle childcare costs.
“Tweaking ratios is not the answer parents want and not the answer children need,” she said.
“What’s more, parents have said the current system of tax-free childcare is too complex to use even once explained. The Government is out of ideas and failing children and families alike.”
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Public sector pay U-turn
Liz Truss was forced to drop proposals to cut £8.8 billion from public sector pay outside London after furious warnings from senior Tories.
Many insist the plan would actually “level down” the nation, leaving cops, teachers and nurses poorer.
She scrapped the plan just over 12 hours after making the policy announcement.
The Foreign Secretary insisted her policy had been “misrepresented” and claimed people had been “unnecessarily worried” about cuts as she confirmed she would not be going ahead with the regional pay boards.
Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen, who is backing Mr Sunak, said the proposed pay policy had left him “actually speechless”.
Mr Houchen added it “could be Liz’s dementia tax moment”, in a comparison to Theresa May ’s scrapped policy that was blamed for her poor electoral performance in 2017.
As part of spending cuts, Ms Truss has also vowed to spark a “war on Whitehall waste” includes scrapping jobs aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in the public sector.
She has claimed her plans would tackle left-wing “groupthink” within the Civil Service.
Rishi Sunak
Fine Brits who miss GP appointments
GP appointments are often missed for an entire range of reasons. One could be too unwell to leave the house without assistance from a loved one.
Others may struggle to get time out from work or end up being penalised in order to see a doctor for a long standing issue.
They may even have childcare commitments or family emergencies that they’d have to attend to first.
But in the midst of a deepening cost of living crisis, Mr Sunak plans to fine Brits £10 if they miss an appointment.
Last night, Mr Sunak admitted the fine would “initially” be £10, suggesting it could increase within months.
“It’s not about making money, when I want to fine people,” he told Tory members in Cheltenham.
“It’s about changing behaviour, because if we can get people to cancel those appointments in advance, even a few of them, we have created millions more NHS capacity to treat everyone who needs it and treat them faster and none of us have paid an extra penny to do that.”
Deradicalise those who ‘vilify’ the UK
Rishi Sunak plans to criminalise those who “vilify” Britain and treat them as extremists.
The ex-Chancellor wants to widen the definition of extremism to include “those with an extreme hatred of our country”.
His campaign team said it would not include criticism of the government or any government policy.
Mr Sunak said: “Whether redoubling our efforts to tackle Islamist extremism or rooting out those who are vocal in their hatred of our country, I will do whatever it takes to fulfil that duty” of keeping Brits ‘safe’.
His allies claim widening the definition of extremism will ensure those with “extreme hatred of our country” who pose a risk to national security “can be identified and diverted away from a destructive path”.
Cuts across Whitehall to pay for his cost of living support
Rishi Sunak plans to unleash cuts across Whitehall in order to fund support for struggling Brits as the cost of living crisis deepens.
Tens of thousands of jobs were expected to be cut over three years, over plans launched back in December.
Mr Sunak has been planning to launch these cuts since he was Chancellor.
Trade unions have warned the cuts could undermine the plans to move thousands of civil service jobs into regions in need of “levelling up” support.
Labour said the “disastrous plan” would cause staff shortages, huge delays for people when trying to access appointments, or even renew passports.
It was previously estimated that 48 per cent of civil servants work in front-line “operational delivery” roles such as paying welfare benefits and state pensions,
Immigration
Mr Sunak also backs the controversial Rwanda asylum policy, saying he would do “whatever it takes” to get it up and running.
He has also unveiled a 10-point plan that includes the promise of a narrower definition of who qualifies for asylum compared with that offered by the European Convention on Human Rights,
The plan includes enhanced powers to detain, tag and monitor illegal migrants.
He has promised to give Parliament control over who comes to the UK by creating an annual cap on the number of refugees accepted each year.
House migrants on cruise ships
Mr Sunak plans to stop housing migrants in hotels, and use spaces like cruise ships.
He hopes it would be an alternative to spending £5million on hotels daily.
Even the Foreign Secretary claimed such a move could breach domestic and international law.
Zehrah Hasan, advocacy director at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants accused the former Chancellor of ramping up the hostile environment and “the brutalisation of refugees for political point-scoring”, adding, “their plans will only destroy more lives and tear more families apart”.