THE Conservative Party leadership contest is a reminder that things can really go from bad to worse. 

Inflation is riding high. Energy and food bills are going through the roof. People are really struggling and need urgent government action to support them through this difficult time. 

You would think that in this context the Tory contenders for 10 Downing Street would be setting out plans for how they will help people with the cost of living as we inch closer to the winter months. 

Well, you would be wrong. Instead we are witnessing two Margaret Thatcher tribute acts competing for who can throw the biggest bones to big business and the super-rich. 

We’ve heard no proposals to control energy prices or to provide additional support to struggling families. Gone are the weasel words about creating a “high-wage economy”. Instead, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak are performing all the right-wing classics. 

Both candidates have pledged to cut corporation tax and income tax, although there is some disagreement on how quickly this should be introduced. Truss, who is by far the frontrunner in this contest according to polls, favours immediate cuts, whereas Sunak believes this should wait till inflation is under control. 

We already have the lowest corporation tax in the G7 and further income tax cuts would benefit the wealthiest the most, whilst reducing much needed revenue for our already neglected public services. 

With Sunak’s chances of victory declining he has now hinted that he would cut inheritance tax and we shouldn’t be surprised if Truss soon follows suit. We are witnessing a low-tax arms race much to the delight of the super-rich donors who fund the Conservative Party.

Then there’s the pledges to attack trade unions through new anti-union laws that take away workers’ right to strike in key sectors. This follows a wave of industrial action across the country, including the ongoing railway workers’ dispute that has seen members of the great RMT union walk out multiple times in the last month over attacks on their terms and conditions. 

Both candidates have pledged to make future railway strikes illegal. This is an authoritarian move that would suppress a key pillar of our democracy and of any free society: the right of workers to withdraw their labour. 

This would represent the most serious attack on the trade union movement in decades and must be resisted by the whole movement. Anyone who thinks these Tory extremists will stop at the railway workers is sorely mistaken. Unless we all resist, they will come for workers in other industries next.

Another feature of the Tory leadership contest is the intensification of the “culture war”. From Truss pushing back against trans rights, to Sunak’s latest policy of expanding the Prevent anti-extremism programme to include those who “vilify Britain”, both candidates are seeking to portray themselves as “anti-woke”. This gives a clear indication that whichever of the two becomes Prime Minister, the Conservative Party is set to continue its reactionary lurch to the right.

Is it any wonder when the candidates’ fate lies in the hands of 180,000, mostly well-off, largely retired, Conservative Party members?

It’s well understood that the Tory grassroots was never quite sold on David Cameron’s centrist rebrand of their party. Their views on immigration, Europe and law and order, in particular, were far to the right of the Cameron government. 

The leadership election between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt revealed strong Tory membership support for a more right-wing and populist direction. At the time there were even reports of thousands of members of the fascist group, Britain First, infiltrating the party. 

This is the elite group who will select our country’s next Prime Minister.

What we are witnessing in this leadership election is the Conservative Party with its mask off as it looks into the mirror and talks to itself. But what they see might not be as attractive to the wider public.

The candidates are following the old Thatcherite recipe of authoritarianism mixed with market fundamentalism. Policies like tax cuts for the rich and attacks on trade unions may be a “vote winner” for Tory members, but they will provoke disgust from millions of working class people who are looking to the government for support through the cost of living crisis.

Neither Truss nor Sunak will make lives better for the people I represent in the former coal fields of West Yorkshire. We still live with the scars of Thatcherism to this day. 

What’s clear is that whoever becomes Prime Minister, the labour movement must be prepared to resist a wave of Tory attacks that are on the horizon.

Jon Trickett is Labour MP for Hemsworth.