Liz Truss has pulled out of an interview with veteran political journalist Nick Robinson which was due to air tomorrow.
The Tory leadership frontrunner’s team said she could ‘no longer spare the time’ to take part in the one-to-one interview, which was scheduled for 7pm on August 30 on BBC One, BBC News tweeted on Monday.
‘We regret that it has not been possible to do an in depth interview with both candidates despite having reached agreement to do so,’ the press team said in a second tweet.
Ms Truss’s rival in the race for No 10, Rishi Sunak, sat down with Robinson earlier this month.
Robinson tweeted: ‘Was pleased to secure an in-depth interview with @trussliz on BBC1. I am disappointed & frustrated it’s been cancelled’.
Tory leadership frontrunner Liz Truss has pulled out of an interview with veteran political journalist Nick Robinson which was due to air tomorrow
Robinson tweeted: ‘Was pleased to secure an in-depth interview with @trussliz on BBC1. I am disappointed & frustrated it’s been cancelled’
BBC News’ Press Team said there was a prior agreement with Truss’s team for the interview and added her rival Rishi Sunak had faced questions from Robinson on August 10
Ms Truss had already declined to be interviewed by veteran broadcaster Andrew Neil on Channel 4, while Mr Sunak has faced him.
She did face questions from a GB News audience in Leigh, Greater Manchester, in an hour-long programme earlier in August, something Mr Sunak has avoided.
Ms Truss’s campaign team has been approached for comment on the withdrawal from the BBC One interview.
The candidates will go head-to-head again in the final official hustings of the Tory leadership race on Wednesday.
The ballot of Conservative Party members closes on Friday, with the winner to be announced on September 5.
BBC stalwart Nick Robinson (pictured) had been due to interview Truss in an interview due to air tomorrow, before the candidates go head-to-head in a final hustings on Wednesday
The cancelled interview comes as both leadership candidates face tough questions about the cost of living crisis.
Truss’s camp has said she is leaning towards targeted support over help for all to ease the cost-of-living crisis, but maintained she is not ‘ruling anything out’ at this stage.
As the contest enters its final week, the country is still in the dark about exactly how either candidate would act to take the sting out of sky-high energy bills this winter.
Conservative minister Victoria Prentis insisted the Government is drawing up options for the next prime minister and argued that targeted support is needed.
‘I would like to reassure that there are many, many different plans being worked on by civil servants and ministers at the moment, and whoever comes in as the next Conservative leader and our next prime minister will have the background work ready and will be able to make those difficult choices very quickly and before it’s needed,’ she told Times Radio.
‘We need to make sure that while we will be providing some general support, … most of our support goes to those really vulnerable households’.
But former chancellor Alistair Darling condemned the Government for ‘fiddling around with small measures’ as he called for bold action to avoid a ‘lethal cocktail’ of skyrocketing energy prices, recession and high inflation.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘You need something significant and substantial and you need it now, because people’s bills are going to start coming in in a few weeks time.
‘If you don’t do that then you have the risks that I’ve been describing, that the economy will slip into recession with all that entails.
‘And when you’ve got that on top of the fact you’ve got inflation already at very, very high levels we haven’t seen since the 1970s, this is a lethal cocktail, which is why it needs bold action taken by the Government now, not fiddling around with small measures that frankly won’t make any difference at all.’
The Labour ex-chancellor added that the lesson he learned in the 2008 financial crisis was that Government had to do ‘more than people expect’.
He said cutting income tax, a measure Ms Truss is reportedly considering, would benefit people at the higher end of the income chain, but not those paying little or no tax.
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