Alun Cairns abandons Sunak for Truss, backs her to ‘secure the Union’
A former Welsh Secretary, Alun Cairns, has followed the current incumbent in defecting from supporting Rishi Sunak to his rival Liz Truss.
Truss is now hotly tipped to win the Conservative leadership contest, prompting a series of Conservative MP who backed her rival to change their minds.
Alun Cairns said today that he believes the Foreign Secretary is the best candidate to secure the Union of the four UK nations.
His move mirrors that of current Welsh Secretary Robert Buckland, who became the first to jump from camp Sunak to camp Truss last week.
Alun Cairns argued that the Union would be more likely to break up under Mr Sunak, a former chancellor, compared to his opponent and her “positive ambition for our country”.
Ms Truss has adopted a more abrasive approach to the first ministers of the devolved administrations during the campaign to succeed Boris Johnson in No 10.
She has described Scotland’s Nicola Sturgeon as an “attention seeker” who is “best ignored” and called Wales’s Mark Drakeford a “low energy version of Jeremy Corbyn”.
‘Risks’
Mr Cairns’ move comes ahead of Tory party hustings in Scotland and Northern Ireland this week, and as polls put Ms Truss the favourite to win.
Writing in The Mail+, Mr Cairns said: “At the outset of the campaign, I met Rishi Sunak to discuss the future of the Union and was content with his responses. I chose to support him.
“However, as the campaign has developed, the risks to our Union have become more apparent. There is a need to break out of the current orthodoxy. The future of our Union depends on it.
“For this reason, I have concluded that with the positive ambition for our country and imagination she has shown, alongside her strong track record as a reformer, Liz Truss is best placed to secure our Union.”
Mr Cairns served in the Cabinet role under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, from 2016 until November 2019, when he resigned over his links to a Conservative candidate for the Welsh assembly who was accused of sabotaging a rape trial.
Current Welsh Secretary Sir Robert Buckland defected from the Sunak campaign to support Ms Truss on Friday, following former minister Chris Skidmore’s switch.
The contenders’ approach to securing the Union will come under growing scrutiny, with the pair heading to Perth on Tuesday and Belfast on Wednesday for questioning by the party members who will select the winner.
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I haven’t heard from Cairns since he accused our government of being ‘anti English’ for simply having the temerity to secure our border during Covid lockdowns, the same practice local authorities were engaging in but because it was the national border, he came out with that insult. Well, here all i’m hearing from him is union, union, union. Anti Welsh. Simples!
Are the KKK the coming to the fore!
do i hear the sound of rodents 🐁 jumping 🚢 ?
My name is Alun Cairns and I am a traitor.
More pathetic than publicly throwing your name behind either of these two candidates is switching based on the “merit” of what either have said.
If anything the only thing more pathetic is switching to Liz Truss who at the moment is more likely to make Boris Johnson’s time in office look competent than do anything good.
We said the people of Swindon should remember what Buckland has done, well the people of Vale of Glamorgan should remember this at time of next election too.
Teyrngarwch is a word missing from every Welsh Secretary’s vocabulary…really shameful, why vote for such lowlife…the word means loyalty but I doubt Alun Cairns knows what it means in either language. Someone should publish the Welsh book of good words like sws and cwtsh and cariad for children…so they grow up to be someone you can trust…
What a snivelling lowlife he is
What a little untrustworthy creep Alun Cairns is. He states his new found support for Truss was her promise to secure the Union. But what does this mean? Taking powers away from the devoved nations by forcing Whitehall direct rule back on Wales, Scotland & Northern Ireland? This isn’t a Union but an authoritarian house of iniquity.
#YesCymru 🏴 ToriesAreFacists 🇬🇧
#RememberTryweryn 🌊🏴#CofiwchDryweryn 🌊🏴
Sorry Mr Cairns – it doesn’t matter which candidate you support, the Union is in its death throes. Both candidates detest devolution and stupidly (in their case) believe name calling and trying to bully Cymru and Alba will bring us meekly back into the fold. Cairns you will go down with the sinking Union ship.
That’s just typical of Cairns – no integrity and no conscience.
Ahh Alan Cairns and his negotiable loyalties!
So how many dirtbags are now vying for the “Welsh Secketry” ministerial car and wage now?
This disgusting rotten party needs to be outlawed in Cymru.
Let the English machine gun their own feet with the slugs if they want. But WE have NEVER voted for them.
Alun Cairns should really be in the DUP. A Unionist-obsessive, with a romantic notion of London acting as the Utopian citadel that looks after the people within its realm. Pure fantasy.
Cairns in being a toadying lickspittle non-shocker.
Grease is the word………………