Tory leadership rivals stepped up their attacks on each other's records and policies in their latest TV debate.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak tax rises he introduced would "choke off" growth.

Mr Sunak accused Ms Truss of peddling "something-for-nothing economics". Other flashpoints were trans rights, Brexit and trust in politics. 

All five ruled out an early general election if they became prime minister in seven weeks' time.

At one point, the candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would give departing Prime Minister Boris Johnson a job in their cabinet. None of them did.

MPs will vote for a third time on Monday as they whittle down the field eventually to two, who will then face postal ballot of Tory members to decide who will be the next prime minister.

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In the hour-long ITV debate, some of the fiercest clashes were between Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, whose divisions over how to bring rising living costs under control while growing the economy were laid bare.

The record of Mr Sunak - who won the first two rounds of MPs' voting - as chancellor has come under sustained attack during the leadership campaign.

Mr Sunak has been forced to defend tax rises introduced during his time as chancellor, including April's hike in National Insurance to pay for social care and the NHS.

In the debate, Ms Truss said Mr Sunak had "raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years", arguing that this was "not going to drive economic growth".

"The fact is that raising taxes at this moment will choke off economic growth, it will prevent us getting the revenue we need to pay off the debt," Ms Truss.

Mr Sunak responded that the pandemic damaged the economy and the money has to be paid back.

"There's a cost to these things and the cost of higher inflation, higher mortgage rates, eroded savings," Mr Sunak said. "And you know what? This something-for-nothing economics isn't Conservative. It's socialism."

Trade minister Penny Mordaunt - the bookmakers' favourite to win the race - said the limited tax cuts she advocated were not inflationary and people need help now with the cost of living.

"I don't understand why Rishi doesn't understand that," she said.

But Mr Sunak hit back, accusing Ms Mordaunt of a "dangerous" plan to scrap his economic rule of only borrowing to invest.

The former chancellor said even Jeremy Corbyn - the left-wing former Labour leader - did not advocate such a loosening of the public finances.

There were also sharp exchanges between Ms Mordaunt and former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch over a row about the self-identification for transgender people.

Ahead of the debate, Ms Mordaunt told the BBC there were a "number of smears going on in the papers" and dismissed claims she had backed gender self-identification when she was an equalities minister in 2019.

"I think this whole thing is unedifying," Ms Mordaunt said. "I know why this is being done. What I would say to you is, all attempts to paint me as an out of touch individual will fail."

Ms Badenoch said she was the candidate for the future whose honesty could "change things for the better".

Other key moments in the debate included:

• Mr Sunak defended his wife Akshata's previous non-domiciled tax status and her family's wealth, arguing theirs was "an incredibly Conservative story"
• Pointing out Ms Truss had been a Liberal Democrat and a Remain supporter in the past, Mr Sunak asked her which one she regretted most. Ms Truss said she had "been on a political journey"
• Ms Badenoch accused Mr Sunak of not taking her seriously when she raised concerns about Covid loan fraud, which he denied
• When asked if they would sit next to Russia President Vladimir Putin at a G20 summit, all but Ms Truss said they would not. Ms Truss said she would "call Putin out"
• All candidates said they would back the UK's commitment to curb carbon emissions to net zero by 2050

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Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss accused Rishi Sunak of 'promoting socialism' by raising taxes to pay for the COVID-19 lockdown furlough scheme in Sunday night's Channel 4 debate, while Penny Mordaunt faced attacks over her U-turn on transgender rights.

A second televised Tory leadership debate has been cancelled after two of the top three runners in the race to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister pulled out.

Sky News cancelled the programme set to be hosted by presenter Kay Burley on Tuesday night after former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced they no longer wanted to take part.

"Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party," a statement by the broadcaster said.

That followed Sunday night's hot-tempered debate between the five remaining candidates broadcast by liberal-leaning Channel 4 News.

During the programme, Truss accused Sunak of "promoting socialism" by raising taxes to pay for the COVID-19 lockdown furlough scheme and clearing the resulting backlog of cases in the National Health Service.

"It is not the right time to be doing more debates when this part of the contest only has 358 voters," a source in the Truss campaign said, referring to the ongoing knock-out rounds of voting by Conservative MPs. "The broadcasters should stop squabbling amongst themselves. The C4 debate in particular was a massive mistake and candidates were wrong to take part in it."

"We are very happy to do more debates if we are lucky enough to get to the next stage," a Sunak campaign source claimed.

Trade Policy Minister Penny Mordaunt, currently the joint favourite along with Sunak to make it through to the ballot of Conservative Party members, also had to defend herself from claims she had made a U-turn on her support for allowing transgender people access to single-sex spaces on the basis of 'self-identification' alone.

The issue has become increasingly toxic among women voters since leading members of the opposition Labour Party were put on the spot by journalists — and were unable to answer whether a woman is someone with female sex organs.

Paul Goodman, editor of Tory grassroots website Conservative Home, likened the candidates' performance in Sunday night's debate to the death-match contestants in the film 'The Hunger Games', "knifing, shooting, bludgeoning and strangling each other on live TV" to the benefit of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

"Tory MPs and activists will have watched in horror as several of the candidates flung buckets of manure over each other," Goodman wrote.

Other candidates said they were happy to take part in more debates — as long as the hosts did not try to provoke arguments between them.

"The people standing in this contest are friends as well as colleagues and afterwards the party must come together to deliver for the country," said a spokesman for candidate Kemi Badenoch, the favourite of party members out of the remaining five.

"Kemi welcomes public scrutiny — it builds trust," he added. "She is open to a debate which sheds light on the issues that matter, but not one which is designed purely to cause a row."

The third ballot of Tory MPs will begin at 5pm on Monday, with the result announced at 8pm. Remaining Europhile candidate Tom Tugendhat came fifth in last Thursday's second-round ballot and is expected to be eliminated.

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Conservative MPs wrapped up a fourth round of voting in the party’s leadership contest on Tuesday. Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch was eliminated, and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is leading the race to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson, with Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss following.

The fourth ballot saw Sunak secure 118 votes, one away from automatic inclusion on the final head-to-head contest for leadership of the Tory Party. Mordaunt picked up 92 votes, and Truss 86. With 59 votes, Badenoch scored lowest and was therefore dismissed from the contest.

The party’s 357 MPs will hold a final ballot on Wednesday, after which its 150,000 or so members nationwide will take part in a postal vote to choose a final winner. The victor will take over as leader of the Conservative Party and become prime minister of the UK in September, as Johnson won a confidence vote on Monday ensuring that he will remain in office until then.

Badenoch was an ardent Brexiteer, and emerged as a vocal critic of “woke” culture. During her campaign, she referred to her opponents as members of the “liberal wing of the Conservative Party.”

Leading these opponents is Sunak, who has positioned himself as a voice of fiscal prudence and the only candidate not promising tax cuts. Mordaunt and Truss have both promised to lower taxes, and both have been singled out for criticism by the party’s grassroots members: Truss for her opposition to the 2016 vote to leave the European Union and Mordaunt for her “woke” views, including her since-retracted insistence that “trans women are women.”

All three candidates support arming Ukraine, with Truss emerging in recent months as one of the loudest anti-Russia voices in Europe. The foreign secretary promised in a recent newspaper op-ed to inflict “real pain on Putin and the Kremlin” if elected, and declared on Tuesday morning that she would hike the UK’s defense spending to 3% of GDP, far beyond the 2% demanded by NATO.

Mordaunt, who served briefly as defense secretary in 2019, said last week that while she would raise military spending, she would refrain from “plucking figures out of the air” during the leadership contest.

Despite enjoying the support of more Tory MPs than his rivals, a YouGov poll released on Tuesday shows Sunak losing a final vote against Mordaunt, Truss, and Badenoch, the latter of whom had not been eliminated at the time of the poll. Ladbrokes, the UK’s largest bookmaker, currently rates Truss as favorite to win the overall contest.

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LA THATCHERITE TRUSS IS THE MOST INCOMPETENT OF THESE THREE DREGS. SHE'S THE ONE WITH MORE CHANCE TO GET THE GIG BECAUSE OF THIS — HOPEFULLY NOT..... SHE THINKS SHE'S THATCHER, SHAKESPEARE AND CHURCHILL ALL IN ONE. SHE'S NEITHER, JUST AN OPPORTUNIST WITH A BRILLIANT IGNORANCE OF ANYTHING ALL HIDDEN BEHIND A SUPERB HUBRIS...

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Former UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have made it through to the final two in the race to take over the helm of the Conservative Party and assume the prime minister’s seat.  

In the fifth and final round of voting by Tory MPs on Wednesday, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt came in third and was thus knocked out. 

Sunak topped the ballot, receiving the support of 137 MPs. Truss garnered 113 votes, just eight more than Mordaunt, who had come in second in all previous rounds. 

However, grassroots members of the ruling party are said to be less loyal to Sunak, who is estimated to be worth over £200 million, has a heiress billionaire wife, and is known for his rather lavish lifestyle. 

According to a Tuesday poll by YouGov, the ex-chancellor would lose to Truss among conservative voters by a wide margin of 54% to 35%. 

The former chancellor will now need to sway voters over the rest of the summer, which promises a full schedule of campaign events. Sunak and Truss have already given a taste of what the campaign trail may look like: during the early stages of the contest for party leadership, the former colleagues in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government clashed on economic policy several times. While Truss promises tens of millions in tax cuts, Sunak insists on the necessity of repairing the post-Covid financial gaps and bringing inflation under control. 

Both candidates are set to continue the current policy of supporting Ukraine, with Truss being known for a particularly tough position on Russia. She also declared recently that she would like to raise the UK’s defense spending to 3% of GDP, far beyond the 2% demanded by NATO. 

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