The Tories are swerving wildly to the right as Truss and Sunak promise the impossible | Polly Toynbee

On most issues - from immigration and equalities to tax cuts - the two candidates for PM are hugely out of step with voters

The Bank of England raises rates in the biggest jump since 1995. Just to do something", it deepens the cost of living crisis while doing nothing to ease inflation caused by the global price of energy and food. How could that be caused by a wage-price spiral when average wages are falling at their fastest rate in two decades. The Bank also predicts a recession as deep as that of the 1990s.

For whoever steps through the door of 10 Downing Street next month, this is just one more misery that hits the squeezed middle" and those above them with mortgages, as well as the just about managing" and the low paid. But this strange Tory leadership contest inhabits another universe, barely touching on the issues that pollsters find most concern voters.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist