LIZ Truss spent the day wooing Tory members during a visit to north Essex.

The MP, who is down to the last two in the battle to be the next Prime Minister, spent time in Earls Colne on Monday.

She met with Braintree MP and supporter James Cleverly and Chelmsford MP Vicky Ford.

Mr Cleverly, the Education Secretary, was of the first MPs to come out and back Ms Truss to win the leadership.

She will face one final vote against Rishi Sunak in the coming weeks.

Members of the Tory party from Braintree, Witham, Colchester and Tendring flocked to meet the prospective Prime Minister at a private residence in the village.

It is understood Ms Truss addressed the crowd with a speech followed by a question-and-answer session.

With not all members backing Ms Truss, the move was a bid by the Foreign Secretary to win over members and potential voters.

It comes as Ms Truss and Mr Sunak clash over key issues ahead of the ballot closing on September 2.

Ms Truss has pledged to cut taxes “immediately” if she wins the race for No 10, a plan condemned by rival Mr Sunak as insufficient to help the most vulnerable amid the worsening cost-of-living crisis.

Ms Truss said she would use a September emergency budget to reverse the national insurance rate rise brought in by Mr Sunak when he was chancellor.

She would seek to implement the change within days, rather than wait until April in line with usual Treasury rules, it is understood after the Bank of England warned that the UK would fall into the longest recession since the financial crisis, with inflation set to soar to more than 13 per cent.

Ms Truss wrote in the Sunday Telegraph: “I would hit the ground running by bringing in an emergency budget, charting a firm course to get our economy growing in order to help fund our public services and NHS.

“I would use this to immediately tackle the cost-of-living crisis by cutting taxes, reversing the rise on national insurance and suspending the green levy on energy bills.”