FORMER defence secretary Liam Fox has denied that Rishi Sunak’s campaign to become Prime Minister is flagging.

In an interview with GB News, he said he was backing the former Chancellor a backling which comes a YouGov poll of Tory party members showing Penny Mordaunt was favoured by 27%, with Mr Sunak trailing in third on 13%.

Mr Fox told GB News: “I think to get close on 90 votes when there were eight candidates, to get more than a quarter of the parliamentary party was a very good result indeed.

“And I think it puts him in a very strong position. We’ll see more closely, we’ll clearly know as the field gets reduced, exactly where the support of those candidates who go out move to, but certainly Jeremy Hunt who stood against Boris Johnson last time coming out in favour of Rishi Sunak was an enormous endorsement and a huge help.”

When told by Tom Harwood that he won with less votes than Boris Johnson got, Mr Fox said it was unsurprising with a long list of candidates and denied that Mr Sunak was not as popular with party members.

“The membership will have to understand that this is not a learning on the job experience,” he said.

“Whoever we select this time will be the Prime Minister within weeks and they will have to be capable enough, bright enough, organised enough, disciplined enough, to be able to create a cabinet and then programme for government.

“So it’s about experience for me, it’s about clarity of thought. It’s about intelligence. It’s about experience.”

Asked if Mr Sunak was pro or anti Boris Johnson candidate, Mr Fox told GB News: “I don’t think this race should be determined by Boris Johnson.

“I voted for Rishi Sunak first of all because I believe he’s an aspirational conservative. I believe he’s a free market conservative and believes in free trade.

“And he was a Brexiteer at a time when many others were taking cover. As a young MP he came out against the huge pressure being applied by the government and was in the trenches with the rest of us during the Brexit campaign.

“So I like someone who, who walks the walk, not just talk to talk and that’s certainly where he came from, because I believe that’s what leadership is all about.”

Mr Sunak would cut taxes after inflation is brought down, he said.

Mr Fox said: “The big problem we have at the present time is that across the country, people are feeling the effects of inflation, inflation that is both an effect of global commodity price rises, as we know, but also loose monetary policy here in the UK.

“Both those things need to be addressed as best we can. And I think that what we need to do as a party is to get back to some concept of fiscal conservatism, but also understanding that you have to create wealth in the economy before you can start dishing it out.

“Those who believe you can increase spending, for example, and reduce taxes at the same time. They’re not living in the real world.

“And frankly, when something sounds too good to be true, it’s because it’s too good to be true.”