The Tory leadership contest today descended into angry accusations of ‘dirty tricks’ and ‘dark arts’ – with supporters of one candidate even revealed to have ‘hijacked’ a rival’s campaign slogan.
Tempers have flared between competing camps ahead of this afternoon’s first round of voting among Conservative MPs.
There are eight contenders left in the race to be prime minister, with ex-Chancellor Rishi Sunak the frontrunner ahead of Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Nadhim Zahawi, Jeremy Hunt and Suella Braverman.
But Mr Sunak is facing a ‘stop Rishi’ campaign from allies of Boris Johnson, who have accused him of treachery after his dramatic resignation last week precipitated the PM’s downfall.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who is fiercely loyal to Mr Boris Johnson, tore into Mr Sunak’s campaign as she claimed they were lending support to Mr Hunt in a bid to knock out less beatable rivals.
Meanwhile, Ms Mordaunt’s supporters were revealed to have seized on Mr Zahawi’s ‘NZ 4 PM’ slogan, with the domain name ‘nz4pm.com’ redirecting to her own ‘PM 4 PM’ website.
Rishi Sunak is facing a ‘stop Rishi’ campaign from allies of Boris Johnson, who have accused the ex-chancellor of treachery after his resignation last week precipitated the PM’s downfall
Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who are both fiercely loyal to Mr Johnson, have been fiercely critical of Mr Sunak
Ms Dorries accused Mr Sunak’s campaign of ‘dark arts’ ahead of the first round of voting among Tory MPs
Once Tory MPs have whittled down the eight-strong field to a final pairing – with voting to start this afternoon – the wider Conservative membership across the country will be balloted to choose between the last two contenders.
Accusing Mr Sunak’s team of syphoning off votes to Mr Hunt in the early stages of the leadership contest, Ms Dorries said: ‘This is dirty tricks/a stitch up/dark arts.Take your pick.
‘Team Rishi want the candidate they know they can definitely beat in the final two and that is Jeremy Hunt.’
But Mr Hunt immediately rubbished Ms Dorries’ claims as ‘absolute nonsense’.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who abandoned his own leadership bid yesterday and has now thrown his support behind Mr Sunak, also rejected the allegation.
He said: ‘Simply, web site in this case it just didn’t happen. Jeremy Hunt himself has said everybody on his nomination paper is somebody who is very close to his campaign. So even he has rubbished it.’
As well as the claims of ‘dark arts’ by Ms Dorries, Mr Sunak’s campaign is also having to battle a continuing onslaught by Jacob Rees-Mogg, another loyalist of Mr Johnson’s.
Both Ms Dorries and Mr Rees-Mogg are backing Ms Truss, who is now being viewed as the ‘continuity Boris’ candidate.
Mr Rees-Mogg accused Mr Sunak of raising tax to ‘socialist’ levels during his time in charge of the Treasury and ‘squandering’ the Tories’ record on the economy.
He has condemned the timescale for the contest to replace Mr Johnson as Tory leader and – in a further swipe at Mr Sunak – claimed it ‘favours’ those who were ‘disloyal’ to Mr Johnson.
Mr Rees-Mogg claimed Mr Sunak had spent six months or more ‘cogitating’ a leadership bid.
Supporters of Penny Mordaunt ‘hijacked’ her rival Nadhim Zahawi’s ‘NZ 4 PM’ slogan by redirecting internet searchers to her own website
The Chancellor has seen the website ‘nz4pm.com’ snapped up by those backing his rival Ms Mordaunt
Whoever was behind the domain name trickery insisted it was not to do with Ms Mordaunt herself
Mr Zahawi has been promoting his ‘NZ 4 PM’ slogan, but now apparently won’t be able to use ‘nz4pm.com’
There is also fierce battling between those not considered frontrunners in the race, with Ms Mordaunt’s backers said to be ‘cyber-squatting’ in direct action against Mr Zahawi’s campaign.
Mr Zahawi, who replaced Mr Sunak as Chancellor last week, is yet to launch an official campaign website but has been promoting his ‘NZ 4 PM’ slogan.
Now, when internet searchers attempt to find Mr Zahawi’s would-be website ‘nz4pm.com’ – they are redirected straight to his competitor’s homepage ‘pm4pm.com’.
After clicking on nz4pm.com, voters are met with a white screen with the words: ‘Vote Penny Mordaunt in this 2022 Conservative election.’
Moments later, users are taken to the Portsmouth North MP’s swanky homepage.
But whoever was behind the domain name trickery insisted it was not to do with Ms Mordaunt herself.
A message on the redirect page reads: ‘Disclaimer: This website does not belong to Penny Mordaunt or the Penny Mordaunt campaign. Penny is not to blame for this and it has nothing to do with her.Remember to buy you domains, Nadhim.’
Ms Mordaunt’s supporters were praised for the ‘pre-emptive cyber-squatting’ in a bid to nab supporters trying to get to the Chancellor’s website.
Journalist Rob Minto spotted the technical trick, writing: ‘OK, domain wars are ON.Zahawi is using the hashtag NZ4PM, but nz4pm.com redirects to pm4pm.com, Penny Mordaunt’s campaign website!
‘Digital skills: Zahawi 0 – 1 Mordaunt.’