Image source, Getty Images

Health minister Gillian Keegan has stepped in to defend Rishi Sunak, saying that the Conservative leadership candidate has "actually cut taxes".

Sunak distanced himself from the other contenders by refusing to pledge that he would immediately lower rates, but instead wait until he has curbed rising inflation.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is backing Liz Truss in the race, took aim at the former chancellor earlier today, saying that his favoured candidate “always opposed Rishi’s higher taxes”.

Sunak supporter Keegan took a different view, arguing that the social care levy "put a sustainable funding stream in place" to make "the massive social care reforms that we need".

She told PA Media: "Sometimes you just have to take good, long-term decisions, which overall will be better for our economy, better for our public finances, and actually enable us to deliver tax cuts in the future."

As the deadline for nominations approaches, we can reveal that successful candidates will speak at the Tory leadership contest's first hustings in Parliament this evening from 19:00 BST.

Time slots have been arranged for all nine of the remaining contenders.

Assuming they all make it through, they will each be given 12-minute slots to speak to all Conservative MPs in the following order:

Liz Truss, Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat, Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman, Kemi Badenoch, Nadhim Zahawi, Penny Mordaunt, Sajid Javid.

Conservative leadership candidate Rehman Chishti has withdrawn from the contest after being unable to "secure the necessary parliamentary backing".

"I have given everything I possibly can in this period to step up and serve our great country," Chishti writes in a letter posted to Twitter, external.

His withdrawal means there are now nine candidates remaining, with less than half an hour until the closing of nominations to officially make it onto the ballot.

Each hopeful requires 20 MPs to support their nomination.

Former cabinet minister Jeremy Hunt has received enough backing to continue running in the Tory leadership contest, his team has told us.

He was a fierce critic of Boris Johnson's government and called on Tory MPs to vote against him in a confidence vote last month.

Hunt - the runner-up to Johnson in the 2019 ballot - has revealed plans to scrap business rates for the most deprived parts of the country for five years and slash corporation tax.

Despite backing remain during the 2016 EU referendum, Hunt said he would be tempted to vote to leave if he could decide again.

We can bring you more on Labour's bid to oust Boris Johnson as prime minister in a vote of no confidence in Parliament.

In its statement, the government said it did not feel the vote was a "valuable use of parliamentary time", given Johnson had already resigned as Tory leader.

“Should Labour amend their motion appropriately, they can have the next business day for it to be debated," the government says.

The government has taken issue with the wording of the motion, as No 10's former director of legislative affairs, Nikki da Costa, explains in a tweet, external.

"Back to the drawing board Labour!," she writes.

But Labour has hit back, with a source saying Johnson hasn’t resigned - and "you can’t separate the prime minister from the government".

Expect this debate to drag on.

Labour had pledged to bring a vote if the Conservatives did not remove Johnson from office immediately, as they seek to replace him as party leader. But Tory MPs were unlikely to back the motion.

Image source, PA Media

Over the last 24 hours or so dozens of Tory MPs have publicly backed the candidate they feel is fit to succeed Boris Johnson as leader.

But there are a few who hadn't decided who to back as the afternoon drew on.

Kingswood MP Chris Skidmore is one of them and he's been telling BBC News he feels the lack of dialogue on the environment as a leadership issue is a missed opportunity.

"I am a rarity, one of the few who have not come out," he said.

"My vote is conditional on a leader or a leadership candidate coming forward saying they will continue to back net zero - unless they do that I won't be backing them.

"Climate change and the environment is third in the priorities behind the economy and the NHS."

He said his phone had been "constantly buzzing with various leadership candidates trying to get in contact".

"Obviously I understand why people are desperate," he said. "The stakes are high.

"For me this isn't about personality, it is about polices which we should be putting in place."

Image source, PA Media

In just under an hour, we will hear from Sir Graham Brady as nominations for the Tory party leadership close at 18:00 BST.

The 1922 Committee chair will say which candidates have made the cut - remember a 20 MP threshold is needed to stay in the race.

Tomorrow will be the first round of voting. Rounds will continue until the candidates are whittled down and just two remain.

We'll then find out who the Tory membership will vote for, with their new leader - the new prime minister - revealed on 5 September.

Suella Braverman says she's "got the numbers" to make the leadership race ballot.

The Attorney General shared that she'd made up the 20 MPs needed at a Southend City event held in Parliament this afternoon.

This makes Braverman the fifth candidate thought to have got over the line, with Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and Tom Tugendhat understood to have also reached the threshold.

The graphic below shows who Conservative Home members want as their next leader, according to a survey.

Away from all the excitement of a Tory leadership race, Boris Johnson is doing what he said he would in his resignation speech - continuing on as prime minister.

Pictures taken at Downing Street today show the weekly cabinet meeting in full swing, with Johnson on one side of the table and some of those vying to replace him - including Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - on the other.

Image source, UK Government

Image source, UK Government

Boris Johnson's government is refusing to allow time to debate a vote of no confidence in the prime minister, Labour says.

The party tabled the motion in Parliament earlier, with the aim of challenging Conservative MPs to oust the prime minister as they simultaneously hold a leadership contest.

Labour wanted to hold the vote tomorrow, but the party says the government won't allow it to go ahead.

Downing Street says confidence votes are conventionally held in governments and not individuals, such as prime ministers.

"This is totally unprecedented," a Labour spokesperson says. "Yet again the Tories are changing the rules to protect their own dodgy mates.

"All the Tory leadership candidates should denounce this flagrant abuse of power to protect a discredited prime minister.”

In a statement, a government spokesperson said: “We have given Labour the option to table a straightforward vote of no confidence in the government.

"They have chosen to play politics by tabling a vote of no confidence in the government and the prime minister."

Let's take a closer look at candidates' tax promises.

What taxes are they pledging to cut?

Cuts in income tax, corporation tax on business profits, National Insurance, fuel duty and VAT on energy bills have all been suggested by various leadership hopefuls.

How can tax cuts be paid for?

If you cut tax, you've got to find the money from somewhere else. That could be from extra borrowing or cuts to public spending. Some are saying they'd do it by spurring growth, which would increase the government's income.

How much might tax cuts cost?

It varies. Reversing April's National Insurance rise would cost about £13bn a year, the IFS says. While scrapping the 5% VAT on domestic energy bills would cost about £1.7bn a year, HMRC estimates, external.

Keep reading here.

Oliver Dowden, who is backing Rishi Sunak in his leadership bid, says Conservative party members "shouldn't speak ill of one another".

His comments to BBC Newsnight come after Jacob Rees-Mogg reportedly called Sunak, the former chancellor, "a socialist".

Most of the leadership candidates are divided over the timing and scale of proposed tax reductions.

But Sunak says he will tackle inflation before making immediate cuts.

In about two hours, nominations close for those hoping to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister.

Candidates need backing from at least 20 other Conservative MPs to progress to the next stage.

Things are very much in flux as we approach the deadline. Nadhim Zahawi, for example, this morning told the BBC he also had enough support - but the numbers here don't reflect that.

Let's take a look at our latest tally of who's got how many supporters:

• Rishi Sunak - 45
• Penny Mordaunt - 25
• Liz Truss - 21
• Tom Tugendhat - 20
• Kemi Badenoch - 16
• Nadhim Zahawi - 14
• Jeremy Hunt - 13
• Suella Braverman - 12
• Sajid Javid - 11
• Rehman Chishti - 0

Want to know more about the candidates? Look no further.

Conservative leadership hopefuls were spotted at a drinks reception on Monday night - it was held by the important backbench 1922 Committee.

That's the body that sets the rules for the contest.

Image source, London News Pictures

Image source, London News Pictures

Image source, London News Pictures

Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, ex-equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and senior backbencher Tom Tugendhat - all also in the leadership race - were spotted at the drinks too.

Image source, Reuters

Tory MP Aaron Bell has handed in the nomination papers for Tom Tugendhat's leadership bid to Tory 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.

He is indicating Tugendhat has the support of the 20 MPs required to get onto the leadership ballot.

"Tom is now the first candidate to be duly nominated," Bell says.

Michael Gove has described his sacking last week by Boris Johnson, calling the PM “very equable, very polite” during the call.

BBC political editor Chris Mason asks Gove about a Number 10 source reportedly calling him a “snake”.

The former levelling up secretary says he'd not given “a second’s thought” to why he was called that.

Nominations close in just under three hours' time, and as we've been reporting candidates need at least 20 MPs to back them to get onto the first ballot.

Throughout the day we've been hearing different positions from some of the candidates. We've also finally heard from Priti Patel, who has decided not to run.

One candidate who we haven't heard much from today is Rehman Chishti - a junior Foreign Office minister and a surprise contender.

The Gillingham MP has not received one single public backer among Tory MPs, however Rehman has tweeted that he will "continue my candidature till the very end".

Image source, .

The Chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, will announce the result of the nomination process for the Conservative leadership contest "at or very shortly after" 18:00 BST this evening, BBC News understands.

Hopefuls will need to have secured 20 nominations from fellow MPs to make it onto the ballot for tomorrow's first round of voting.

From there candidates receiving fewer than 30 votes will be eliminated and in the second round of voting on Thursday the candidate with the fewest amount of votes is knocked out.

Successive rounds continue until only two remain and then it goes to a postal vote of the Conservative membership, around 180,000 people, to elect a new leader - and therefore a new prime minister.

The winner will be announced on 5 September.

Image source, .

Image source, Reuters

Rishi Sunak has another backer – former health secretary Matt Hancock.

Hancock, who resigned from cabinet last year after breaking his own Covid rules, said he was supporting the "best candidate to lead this country".

"He's got the plan, the character and the experience to deliver for the country, and win the next election," Hancock said of Sunak.

The Tory MP chose to make the announcement on his own Matt Hancock app, before posting the same message to Twitter, external.

Image source, Reuters

Liz Truss has now received the backing of 20 MPs, meaning she has secured the necessary number of nominations to contend the Tory leadership race.

Paul Bristow, MP for Peterborough, has switched his allegiance to the foreign secretary after his previous top choice, Grant Shapps, pulled out of the race.

Bristow tweets , externalthat Truss is "best placed" to unite the Conservative Party and deliver for Britain.

Truss now joins Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat as the contenders who have so far reached the support of 20 MPs ahead of tonight's 18:00 BST deadline.