Exclusive: The anti-Rishi 'mucky memo' setting alight Tory WhatsApp groups

Rishi Sunak is a “schoolboy” and a “liar” who cannot be trusted on tax, according to a “mucky memo” being circulated among Tory MPs.

The race to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister descended into all-out-war on Sunday as the highly critical missive, ironically headlined “Get Ready for Rishi”, declared “there is nothing Conservative about the ‘Big Tax and Big Spend’ agenda of Rishi Sunak”.

It comes amid an increasingly bitter briefing war between the leading rivals as Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, prepares to announce the timetable for the leadership campaign on Monday.    

Tory grandees have warned that the Conservative Party risks tearing itself apart and have called for a ceasefire after Mr Johnson's allies in No 10 accused Mr Sunak of "treachery" for triggering the prime minister's exit. 

Tax, over which Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson have long been in dispute, is becoming the most divisive issue in the contest.

The former chancellor believes that tax can be cut only when finances improve, and has urged the party not to believe his leadership rivals’ "fairytale" promises of higher spending and lower taxes.

But amid fears of “more of the same”, there have reportedly been concerted efforts to convince right-wing MPs to coalesce around an anti-Sunak candidate. 

A “dirty dossier” is now spreading like wildfire across Tory WhatsApp groups accusing Mr Sunak of “enabling Boris Johnson’s reckless over-spending and increased UK taxes to the highest level since Clement Attlee”.

The author is unknown but the Telegraph has been told the extraordinary 424-word salvo has been written by someone on the right of the party to avoid “a coronation”.

A Tory source said: “It’s coming from that Thatcherite wing of the party that was loyal to Boris.

“There’s a lot of runners and riders and a frontrunner at the moment trying to create a coronation scenario.

“The dossier would suggest that he’s actually got a pretty poor record - that’s not opinion, it’s fact. This is about winning the next general election. That’s why it’s being circulated. It’s spread like wildfire. There won’t be a Tory MP who hasn’t seen it by now.”

'Arrogance, indolence, ignorance'

Suggesting Mr Sunak’s policies at the Treasury were “not even One Nation”, the dirty dossier urges the party to “decisively move on” adding: “Let us keep this a Conservative Party with a small “c”.”

As well as listing the former chancellor’s “Big State” spending of £150billion, it also points out how he broke a manifesto promise not to raise taxes by increasing National Insurance Contributions, pushing up corporation tax by 30 per cent and failing “to deliver on the Brexit dividend to abolish 5 per cent VAT on fuel”.

The manifesto also pledged to control debt, but as the document states: “He added £400billion to the national debt to pay workers not to work, only to spend countless more billions for them to eat out a few weeks later.”

It adds: “(He) stated that as a Conservative he would not borrow money to pay £12billion for social care, only to magic up £18billion for 'cost of living' measures just a few months later.”

It also attacks him for “wasting £32billion on Track & Trace tech that never delivered”, and writing off £4.9billion in Covid loan fraud” before quoting Lord Agnew, his own minister, who accused him of “arrogance, indolence, ignorance” and "schoolboy errors". 

It adds: “(He) delivered a failed March 2022 budget that was a welter of contradictions, tax raises and sleights of hand that defied analysis, logic or comprehension”, by imposing “an investment-destroying Windfall Tax on energy companies” and refusing “to support calls for tax cuts on the private sector”.

The memo also criticises Mr Sunak personally, saying he “publicly lied not once but twice when seeking to explain his wife’s 'non-dom' tax status.”

Pointing to the fact he “secretly held a “Green Card” to work in the US 18 months into his chancellorship of the UK, it casts doubt over his claim that “his resignation within minutes of Savid Javid was an unplanned coincidence”, pointing out that he “launched his campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party with a website domain registered in December 2021”.

Suggesting Mr Sunak “lingers in negative territory in the polls with no realistic prospect of regaining the  trust of 4 out of 10 Conservative voters who are repelled by the Johnson administration”,  it appears to tar him with Mr Johnson’s brush by adding: “Like Boris, (he) landed a 'Partygate' fine from the police for breaking lockdown rules.”

Tax becomes a dividing line 

Frontrunners including Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary; Nadhim Zahawi, the Chancellor; Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary; and Sajid Javid, the former health secretary, all plan to promise to cut taxes as they seek to exploit the dividing lines between themselves and Mr Sunak. 

Ms Truss, who will launch her campaign on Tuesday, is expected to stand on the ticket of reversing Mr Sunak's controversial National Insurance tax rise, known as the Health and Social Care Levy. 

On Sunday, the former defence secretary, Penny Mordaunt, announced her candidacy after her successor, Ben Wallace, the favourite according to some polls, pulled out of the race on Saturday.

It is thought Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is being urged to stand by Brexiteers but is facing competition for support from Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch, who are both gaining popularity on the right of the party. 

Ms Braverman, the Attorney General, has already secured the baking of prominent Leaver Steve Baker while Ms Badenoch is planning to deliver a campaign speech in the House of Lords on Monday in front of more than 200 free speech campaigners including Martina Navratilova and Sharron Davies - who both oppose trans women competing in female sport.  

Some believe the number of pro-Brexit, fiscally conservative candidates could split the vote on the right, allowing Mr Sunak to gain momentum. 

Lord Hague of Richmond, the Tory leader from 1997 to 2001, was among senior figures to call for restraint yesterday, saying: 

"The party and the country need some calm reflection and the chance for candidates to put forward their positive plans. Conservatives should be careful not to spend their time undermining some of their own leading figures."