Rishi Sunak Has Agreed To Be Grilled By Andrew Neil - But Liz Truss Says No

Rishi Sunak has agreed to be interviewed by Andrew Neil - but his Tory leadership rival Liz Truss has said no.

The former chancellor will face the feared interrogator on Channel 4 on Friday evening. 

Louisa Compton, the channel’s head of news and current affairs and specialist factual and sport, said: “After the success of our first audience debate we’re delighted that Rishi Sunak has confirmed he will be interviewed by Andrew Neil on Channel 4.

“We hope that Liz Truss also now agrees – and allows the British public to better understand what she stands for.”

However, a Truss campaign source told HuffPost UK they had “no plans to do the interview at the moment”.

Sunak poked fun at the foreign secretary’s no-show on Twitter.

Boris Johnson famously refused to be interviewed by Neil during the last general election, unlike every other major party leader.

However, that did not prevent him going on to win an 80-seat majority.

Truss currently has a 24-point lead among Tory members over Sunak, meaning she would have far more to lose by agreeing to do the interview.

The two leadership contenders will go head-to-head tonight in a live TV debate on the BBC.