Liz Truss criticised for claiming public sector pay pledge was misrepresented – as it happened

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We are closing this blog now. Here’s a summary of today’s events:

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Updated at 12.26 EDT

A group of 10 Scottish Tory MPs and MSPs have announced their support for Rishi Sunak, a day after nine Tory MSPs said they would be backing his rival, Liz Truss, for the party’s leadership.

Those supporting Sunak’s leadership bid include the former Scottish Conservative leader, Jackson Carlaw, as well as MPs John Lamont and Andrew Bowie. MSPs Maurice Golden, Jeremy Balfour, Miles Briggs, Dean Lockhart, Donald Cameron, Alexander Stewart and Liz Smith also backed the former chancellor.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the group played up Sunak’s electability, which they claim would stop a deal between the SNP and Labour that would secure a second independence referendum.

Both Keir Starmer and the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, have insisted they will not form a coalition or agreement with the SNP after the next general election.

The group of Tories from Scotland said:

A Labour-SNP pact would put the future of the UK at risk and would give the nationalists licence to divide Scotland all over again with a second independence referendum.

We cannot allow that to happen, and the polls consistently show that Rishi is the candidate most likely to win the next general election and put a stop to any dodgy backroom deal.

They went on to say that Sunak has a plan to “kick the SNP government out of office”.

The article in the Telegraph came out a day after nine Tory MSPs announced their support for Truss in the Times.

Updated at 11.47 EDT

Truss repeats claim her public sector pay plan was ‘misrepresented’

After she was forced to abandon a flagship policy to slash civil service pay outside London, Liz Truss has now said people were “unnecessarily worried” about her plans for regional pay boards.

She told the BBC in Dorset:

I’m afraid that my policy on this has been misrepresented. I never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses.

But what I want to be clear about is I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards, that is no longer my policy.

She added:

I’m being absolutely honest, I’m concerned that people were worried, unnecessarily worried about my policies and therefore I’m being clear that the regional pay boards will not be going ahead.

As we reported earlier, Sunak’s camp has argued that the move was no mistake, pointing out that Truss had called for it when she was chief secretary to the Treasury in 2018.

Updated at 10.53 EDT

The former health secretary Matt Hancock has described Liz Truss’s plan to cut pay for civil servants or public sector workers as a “bad idea”.

Hancock, who is backing Rishi Sunak’s leadership bid, said cutting public sector pay for workers outside of London was “levelling DOWN not levelling UP”.

He added:

We need to support public servants – including civil servants – who work hard for us all.

Updated at 10.36 EDT

Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley who earlier said he was “speechless” at Liz Truss’s plan to cut public sector pay in less expensive parts of the country, has described the Tory leadership hopeful’s proposal as “horrifically bad”.

Houchen, who is backing Rishi Sunak in the leadership contest, told BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme:

It is just a huge misstep and I’m just pleased that she’s realised it and has backtracked and has decided that this isn’t going to happen moving forward.

He added:

Is it a moment – I’m not entirely sure, it might be – we might look back in four or five weeks’ time and this could be Liz’s ‘dementia tax’ moment. It very easily could be, but it’s to be seen.

Updated at 10.38 EDT

Jeremy Corbyn has urged western countries to stop arming Ukraine, and claimed he was criticised over antisemitism because of his stance on Palestine, in a TV interview likely to underscore Keir Starmer’s determination not to readmit him to the Labour party.

Corbyn said:

Pouring arms in isn’t going to bring about a solution, it’s only going to prolong and exaggerate this war. We might be in for years and years of a war in Ukraine.

Corbyn gave the interview on Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV channel that has carried pro-Russia reporting since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Read the full article by my colleague, Heather Stewart:

Mike Clancy, the general secretary of the Prospect union, has responded to Liz Truss’s backtracking on her flagship policy to introduce regional pay boards for public sector workers.

If Liz Truss believes public sector workers are at the bedrock of society, she needs to call off the attack dogs from her own side and start working with unions and others to give the public the support and services we need.

The British public are in a fragile place trying to cope with endless waves of rising prices and falling wages.

It is time ministers put the national interest before that of their own leadership ambition.

Updated at 09.08 EDT

The numbers crossing the Channel to seek refuge in the UK hit a record for the year so far on Monday, as Border Force staff braced themselves for thousands more arrivals this summer.

The Ministry of Defence said that 696 made the journey in 14 small boats on Monday. It followed 460 arrivals on Saturday and 247 on Friday, with more than 1,000 people crossing last week.

In July, 3,683 people crossed from France. The total for this year is believed to be more than 17,000.

The figures came amid reports of growing concern over plans to stem the number of boats carrying asylum seekers across the Channel.

Updated at 08.54 EDT

A source has told Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s chief politics reporter, that Liz Truss has previously called for lower pay outside of the south-east.

More Labour frontbenchers are ridiculing Liz Truss’s now abandoned policy to cut public sector pay outside London.

Anneliese Dodds MP has tweeted the following:

Updated at 08.35 EDT

Labour’s Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry has tweeted this regarding Liz Truss’s U-turn on her flagship policy of cutting public sector pay outside London.

Updated at 08.49 EDT

Liz Truss criticised by former Tory chief whip for claiming public sector pay pledge was misrepresented

The Conservative former chief whip, Mark Harper, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, said Liz Truss should “stop blaming journalists” after a spokesperson for the Tory leadership hopeful said there had been a “wilful misrepresentation of our campaign”.

Updated at 08.42 EDT

The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, has accused Liz Truss of running her leadership campaign with “incompetence” after the Tory leadership hopeful was forced to U-turn on plans to cut civil service pay outside London.

Davey said:

U-turning on a multibillion-pound policy five weeks before even taking office must be a new record.

We can’t let Liz Truss run the country with the same incompetence she’s running her leadership campaign. The British people must have their say in a general election.

Earlier today, Davey described Truss’s plan for regional pay boards as “callous, incompetent and ridiculous”.

Updated at 08.11 EDT

Sources in Rishi Sunak’s leadership camp say Liz Truss has been pushing for a public sector pay cut since 2018, following her decision to abandon the policy after a furious outcry from Conservative MPs and the Tees Valley mayor.

Truss has suggested in the past that public sector workers outside London and the south-east should receive lower pay rises.

From my colleague Aubrey Allegretti:

Updated at 08.12 EDT