LIZ Truss last night received another boost to her thundering PM bid as Tory darling Kemi Badenoch hailed her as an exciting “maverick”.

Axar.az reports that whereas in a slightly back-handed compliment, the popular one-time candidate described Rishi Sunak as a “super-technocrat”.

It left the ex-Chancellor fighting to stop Ms Truss from galloping away with the contest as the pair went head-to-head at the Cheltenham racecourse for the latest hustings.

He suffered more blows yesterday as two of his former colleagues spectacularly dunked on his record in government in a fierce escalation of the blue-on-blue attacks.