If the Murdoch press is so panicked about recession, why did it back austerity and Brexit? | Polly Toynbee

As Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak slug it out for PM, rightwing papers are waking up to the looming economic catastrophe

The gloves are off and it's bare-knuckle, below-the-belt slugging. Good. High time they grappled with the terrifying enormity of the waves of destitution rolling over millions already neither heating nor eating, facing unpayable bills. Liz Truss stumbled badly by telling the Financial Times she would only help them in a Conservative way" with tax cuts not handouts", her gofers explaining she is enabling people to keep more of the money that they earn". No use now saying she was misrepresented" yet again: she's been panicked into promising her own emergency budget.

Rishi Sunak in the Sun makes lethal (and true) accusations that Liz's plan" to deal with rising bills this winter is to give a big bung to large businesses and the well-off". Worse still," he writes, she said she will not provide direct support payments to those who are feeling the pinch most." Scrapping the health and social care levy only gives the average worker 170 and someone on the living wage less than 60", while pensioners will not get a penny".

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist