On Sky News this morning Ben Wallace promised “I’m not here to attack the other candidate… we don’t want this blue-on-blue, I’m not sitting here poking sticks at Rishi Sunak.” That noble approach lasted all of two minutes before the defence secretary descended into blue-on-blue attacks on Rishi…

Over his subsequent hour’s media round we saw Wallace slam Rishi on his decision to resign in the first place, his reluctance to put in place a multi-year defence spending settlement, and his economic policy.

“Let’s look at that Friday afternoon – I think it was a Friday – what if the markets had crashed? What if the Home Secretary had done that and there was a terrorist attack? What would the public think, they would never forgive us for that… I don’t think people needed to walk out, the public would see that as a government not thinking about the job in hand.”

“The multi-year settlement that we got was not what the Treasury had wanted, they wanted a one-year settlement – this was back in 2019 I think – and it was vital that we got a multi-year settlement, and the PM effectively asserted his authority and made all that to happen… 

But Mr Sunak was not in support?

Not that I remember.”

“Cut the right taxes like not proceed with corporation tax rises helps growth. When Rishi was Chancellor he cut entrepreneurial relief – he cut the relief we give to entrepreneurs who’ve invested in this country, invested in businesses – that’s not a way to help create either wealth or indeed growth”

If that’s Wallace pulling his punches, Putin should be worried…