Politics latest news: Farage more popular with 2019 Tory voters than Sunak

Rishi Sunak should challenge his Tory leadership critics to “put up or shut up”, George Osborne said. 

The former chancellor said he believed voters would appreciate Mr Sunak showing a “flash of steel” to his rivals amid speculation he could face a potential challenge. 

Mr Osborne told his Political Currency podcast: “[Sunak] is so worried about reigniting the Tory civil war… he’s allowed the civil war to be ignited without necessarily taking a strong position in it. 

“I think it’d be very much to his credit to say, ‘look, there are some people in the party that don’t like what I’m doing, don’t like the way I’m leading it, fine, but I’ll tell you what, the way I’m doing it is moral, it’s economically competent, it’s going to deliver the results for Britain’.

“And if they don’t like it, they can either put up or shut up.  And I think people would like a bit of a flash of steel.”