Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak tear into "miserabilist mayor" Andy Burnham during Manchester Tory leadership hustings

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Both of the candidates to replace Boris Johnson as Prime Minister launched stinging attacks on Andy Burnham during a hustings event in the city tonight (Friday) Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss made their pitch to be the new Tory leader to an audience of over 1,000 local party members.

And they took the opportunity to attack the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester's record, with both accusing him of "being on the side of the trade unions" over rail strikes. READ MORE: Rishi Sunak accuses Andy Burnham of 'failing' to get a grip on crime in Greater Manchester - he's come out fighting... Ms Truss reaffirmed her pledge to build Northern Powerhouse Rail in full saying she wanted to "make the M62 the superhighway to success." Whilst Rishi Sunak said more action needed to be taken on grooming gangs and issued a warning that levelling up could not be just "only for the north." Both candidates, who did not appear on stage together, gave speeches before being quizzed individually by TV host Alistair Stewart and members of the audience during the event at Manchester Central.

During his address, Mr Sunak attacked Mr Burnham's record on crime in the region as well as his stance on the rail issue. "We need to restore trust of communities right here by calling out the failures of the Labour mayor Andy Burnham because it simply isn’t good enough," he said. "I mean just look at the record - a police force (Greater Manchester Police) that was put into special measures, the highest rates of knife crime almost across the UK. “Now I will make sure that the police have the powers to do their job and whether it’s stop and search, I will never let political correctness stand in the way of keeping us safe. “And we saw him again today - a day of