The Tory leadership teams rolled into Belfast this afternoon, clad in metaphorical red, white and blue and eager to display their unionist credentials. But while all eyes were on Ulster, elsewhere the real scrap was happening at the Conservative Environment Network where proxies were battling it out for the two final contenders. In team Truss’s corner was Lord Goldsmith, the former MP now ensconced in ermine, while George Eustice, the soon-to-be-departed Environment Secretary, did the honours for Rishi Sunak.

The two men have both been jousting for their patrons but there was little sign of courtly behaviour on show. Eustice, who serves as Goldsmith’s boss in the department, accused Truss of refusing to recognise the importance of animal welfare in post-Brexit trade deals. Goldsmith meanwhile claimed Sunak never showed up to climate-related cabinet meetings as chancellor and said he tried to trim funds for international wildlife programmes. Attacks on rival candidates are to be expected of course but Steerpike’s eyebrows were raised when Goldsmith opted to turn his guns on his own side.

The Mayfair maverick was asked by the moderator about ‘some of her [Truss’s] very vocal supporters [who] are quite Net Zero skeptic’. Goldsmith responded by taking a pop at his fellow Tory peer and Truss-backer, Lord Frost, who has loudly voiced such criticisms. Goldsmith suggested that, despite briefings that Frost will be Truss’s chief of staff, the former Brexit negotiator will have far less influence in any such government than Kwasi Kwarteng and Simon Clarke, both of whom support Net Zero. He told the audience:

There are people in Liz’s camp – David Frost is an obvious example and I suspect is the reason I got that question – if you look at the candidate themselves, and the key people who’ve been pipped publicly for high office, these are people who I think can be relied upon. I think, you know, in the past I’ve often dreamt about seeing a well-publicised debate between Kwasi [Kwarteng] and David Frost, I’ve no doubt Kwasi would wipe the floor because he’s become an incredibly powerful advocate. And he believes this stuff. He’s really been through the details, and he’ll probably be Chancellor, he maybe the Business Secretary. Simon Clarke will be one of those two positions as well. He’s been my go-to person ever since I became a minister including even when he was on the backbenches. He’s just very sound on these issues. He’s intelligent, he’s thought them through and he understands these things. And those are the two key people in the campaign. And they’re people I completely trust on these issues.

Steerpike wonders what Frost and some of Truss’s other supporters make of Goldsmith’s claims. The irony is of course that the Old Etonian is now being wheeled out to speak for her campaign, even though allies of Truss dismissed him in government as part of a protectionist ‘axis of evil’. It shows the inherent tensions within the Truss camp between those that are backing her purely to stop Rishi and others who want a much more free-market direction for the country.

Come 5 September, which faction of Truss-ites is going to be left disappointed?