‘I’d have done a better job than this lot … they have no answers’ – Doncaster MP Ed Miliband on ‘appalling’ Tory leadership race

Mr Miliband was asked his thoughts on the leadership contenders running to be the new Tory leader and Prime Minister and said the candidates were relaying ‘fantasy economics’ with uncosted tax cuts worth billions of pounds.

He added none had the answers to the cost of living crisis and a huge spike in energy bills and that Boris Johnson was ‘clearly unfit for office’.

The process has been whittled down from six candidates to two. Former chancellor Rishi Sunak and foreign secretary Liz Truss are still in the running.

The two candidates will face off in a series of hustings where Conservative members will have the final say.

A new leader is expected to be appointed by September 5 at the latest.

“I think families across Doncaster will be appalled at the spectacle that the Conservative party is putting the country through,” Mr Miliband said.

“Boris Johnson was clearly unfit for office, we’ve got families in Doncaster going through a terrible cost of living crisis with energy bills and everything else and people here will be asking what do these candidates have to say to me.

“So far the answer is nothing – there’s fantasy economics with billions and billions of tax cuts for business with no idea where the money is coming from apart from cuts to spending and that’s not good for families in Doncaster.

“Where’s the answers to energy bills, the cost of living crisis that so many families are facing. It’s a miserable shower that we’re facing.

“It’s time for a general election – we’ve got a party that will have their fourth Prime Minister (in 12 years) and they can’t answer the problems the country is facing with the terrible economic problems in this country.

“People are saying the country is stuck, it’s going nowhere and it’s not just time for a change at the top, it’s time for a change in government.

On his own failed election bid in 2015, Miliband added: “It’s not a time to be looking back but frankly, I think I’d have done a better job than this lot. But we are where we are and we need to look to the future.”