UK PM frontrunner Liz Truss on back foot as poll lead shrinks

British Conservative Liz Truss's leadership campaign faced its first serious peril Tuesday as she was forced into a policy U-turn and came under fierce fire in Scotland, against the backdrop of a shrinking poll lead.

The foreign secretary was accused of insulting the government in Edinburgh after she alleged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was an "attention seeker" for agitating for Scottish independence, and recommended to "ignore her".

The provocative remarks, delivered at a Tory member hustings in southwest England late Monday, were denounced by the Scottish National Party (SNP), which is pressing for a second referendum on independence.

John Swinney, Sturgeon's deputy as first minister of Scotland, called the remarks "obnoxious" and contrasted the roughly 200,000 Tory members with the 2.4 million votes the SNP won in elections last year.

"Nicola Sturgeon has far more democratic legitimacy than Liz Truss is going to have if she becomes the prime minister," he told BBC television.

"And I think Liz Truss has absolutely no right or foundation to make these remarks," Swinney said, arguing her "silly, intemperate intervention" had made the case itself for Scotland to go its own way.

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, Truss's rival in the race to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has also ruled out another referendum, after Scots voted narrowly in 2014 to stay in the UK.

Last week, Sunak called it "the wrong priority at the worst possible moment".

But the SNP argues that Brexit has transformed the constitutional debate, and wants to hold a second plebiscite in October 2023.

The Supreme Court in London plans to hold hearings on October 11-12 this year on whether that would be legal without approval from the UK government, which by then will be led by Truss or Sunak.

"Keeping the UK together means confronting nationalism and beating them at the ballot box. Only I have a plan to do this," Sunak said, after winning the endorsement of 10 Scottish Conservative colleagues.

Truss, however, already has the backing of big hitters in Johnson's outgoing cabinet after initially building a strong poll lead on her promises of immediate tax cuts to address a cost-of-living crisis in Britain.

But as Tory members begin voting by post and online this week, a new survey reported by The Times said her lead had narrowed from more than 20 points to just five: 48 percent to 43 percent.

The result of the election is due on September 5.

Both candidates have been issuing daily pledges of policy changes in a bid to turn a page on the Johnson government and address Britons' economic fears.

They have also been trying to curry favour with right-wingers in the Tory rank and file.

Truss outlined the creation of "regional pay boards" outside London for public-sector pay, rather than a uniform rate set nationally, as part of a plan to wage "war on Whitehall waste".