Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

There is a lot at stake in the next few weeks.

But remember that whoever wins this leadership election will have to try and work with their whole party.

At the moment, the tone of the debate feels pretty tense.

Rishi Sunak in particular is going in hard; accusing Liz Truss of having socialist plans and Penny Mordaunt of going further than Jeremy Corbyn.

There is a real debate for the ideological future of the Conservative Party playing out.

Rishi Sunak has said he'd love to stand up and say "I'll cut tax and it'll all be OK" but dismissed it as "something for nothing economics".

Credit: Britain’s Next Prime Minister: The ITV Debate is airing now on ITV1.

Liz Truss say the current economic strategy is not working and needs to be bolder.

Kemi Badenoch says the Bank of England has got its inflation policy wrong and the Treasury hasn't been marking its homework properly.

Tom Tugendhat says it's hard to keep up with who's disowning government policies.

Rishi Sunak says "sound money" - fiscal responsibility - is key.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Tax is a central plank of this whole contest, and what we saw just then one of the key flashpoints.

Liz Truss accuses fellow frontrunner the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak of being too comfortable cranking up taxes.

Sunak snaps back "something for nothing economics isn't Conservative, it is socialism."

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

We are straight in with the ideological debate on tax. Liz Truss is not holding back in criticising Rishi Sunak, holding him personally responsible for taxes being at their highest level in decades.

Ms Truss argues that higher taxes are making growth harder. Mr Sunak defends his plans – and is angry at what he sees “something for nothing” promises from his rival.

Liz Truss is first. She says she'll reverse the national insurance rise and cut corporation tax.

Tom Tugenhadt says he'll cut fuel duty and other taxes.

Penny Mordaunt promises targeted support for hard-hit families.

Kemi Badenoch says she gets it, she'll cut fuel duty and inflation.

Rishi Sunak says inflation will be his key target; he'll grow the economy and cut taxes when it's responsible to do so.

"If you win you will be prime minister in seven week's time," says host Julie Etchingham, "What is your big idea to immediately ease the uprecedented cost of living crisis?"

The candidates are at their lecterns and are about to be grilled by the host of the debate, ITV presenter Julie Etchingham. They begin with pithy personal statements, setting out their stalls.

Stay with us for live coverage of the debate.

Chris Mason
Political editor

With the smell of a barbeque down the street wafting through the window, here we go with what will add up to two and a half hours of primetime TV debate this weekend among the wannabe prime ministers.

The next round of voting is 24 hours away. The contenders have half an eye on appealing to the Conservative Party members and the wider electorate -- and the rest of their gaze on Tory MPs, who will decide in the next few days who makes the final run off of two to be picked from by party members.

The second TV debate of the Conservative leadership contest will start in the next few minutes.

We'll bring you the updates as they unfold from the debate, which is being broadcast live on ITV from 19:00 BST, and analysis from BBC correspondents.

The debate will also be streamed live on the ITV Hub, external, as well as on the ITV News, external website, YouTube, external, Facebook, external, and Twitter, external. Take your pick.

The five candidates stepped up to their first debate podiums on Friday, hosted by C4's Krishnan Guru Murthy in front of an audience of floating voters.

One of the key topics was tax, with all candidates proposing tax cuts and some saying these should be immediate.

Rishi Sunak, defending his taxation decisions as former chancellor, said it's a "fairy tale" to "borrow our way out of inflation".

Liz Truss called for tax cuts, saying she would reverse Sunak's national insurance rise, which she branded a "mistake".

Tom Tugendhat highlighted how he was the only candidate not to vote for the recent national insurance rise.

Penny Mordaunt said she planned smaller cuts, including reducing VAT on petrol and reviewing how standing charges for utilities are set.

Kemi Badenoch agreed there is headroom to cut fuel duty and pledged to bring forward universal credit and pension credit uplift.

Truss, Badenoch, and Mordaunt also faced questions on gender self-identification.

They were also quizzed on whether Boris Johnson was honest and whether tax cuts would come at the cost of public services.

Image source, PA Media

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

The first TV debate on Friday was not a friendly exchange of ideas. There were heated exchanges on tax policy and self-identification for trans people in particular. There is a battle of ideology and personality playing out at the top of the Conservative Party.

This contest is short and the stakes are high - so we could see more of the same this evening.

The candidates have just a couple of days to persuade Tory MPs to put them into the final two - with the winner then being chosen by members in the next few weeks.

Image source, PA Media

Over at ITV's White City studios in London, the stage is being prepared for the five Tory leadership candidates to lock horns in the second televised debate.

Here's a sneak preview of what the set looks like. The calm before the storm, perhaps.

Image source, PA Media

Not long to go now, and Rishi Sunak's team have published a tweet reminding Tory MPs and party members of their candidate's Brexit credentials.

While also pointing out that one of his big rivals, Liz Truss, campaigned for Remain. It is a typically slick production from Team Rishi, which has been spending big on social media.

Five candidates remain in the race to be the next leader - and prime minister.

What has happened in the leadership contest so far?

The first stage of the process is decided on by Tory MPs only.

The 1922 committee of backbench MPs sets the rules and decided candidates must secure the backing of 20 MPs to enter the race, which whittled numbers down to eight.

Three of those have been knocked out so far:

• Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

• Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi
• Attorney General Suella Braverman

Hunt and Zahawi failed to secure the minimum 30 votes in the initial round, with 18 and 25 backers respectively,

The second round left Braverman with the fewest votes, so she has also fallen by the wayside.

What happens next?

Three more rounds of voting will be held by Conservative MPs, with the candidate with the least support exiting the race each time.

That will leave two finalists to battle it out for the votes of Conservative party members, travelling around the UK to spar at a series of hustings.

Under the current rules, we should have a victor by 5 September at the latest.

The result will be announced by 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady.

Read more here

Image source, PA Media

Anticipation is building ahead of the second televised debate between the five remaining candidates vying to be the next Tory leader and prime minister.

We’re now 30 minutes away from kick-off at 19:00 BST.

The hour-long debate is being hosted by ITV, with presenter Julie Etchingham asking the candidates questions about issues dominating the campaign.

Tax policy, the cost of living, Brexit, and gender identity have been some of the most prominent issues so far.

To refresh your memory, the five candidates are:

• Former chancellor Rishi Sunak
• Foreign Secretary Liz Truss
• Trade minister Penny Mordaunt
• Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch
• Foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat

Image source, PA Media

Ahead of tonight's debate, the ConservativeHome website, external has published its daily snapshot of party membership opinion on who should be the next leader and prime minister.

It suggests that either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss would beat Penny Mordaunt in a run-off of the final two, though neither margins is large and the don't knows are a significant percentage.

845 people were surveyed. It's important to stress the poll is a snapshot and may not be wholly representative of the party membership who will make the final decision.

Here are the survey's run-off figures:

Sunak v Mordaunt

Mordaunt: 41% (Last Monday: 58%)

Sunak: 43% (Last Monday: 31%)

Don’t know: 15% (Last Monday: 13%)

Sunak v Truss

Sunak: 42% (Last Monday: 34%)

Truss: 49% (Last Monday: 51%)

Don’t know: 9% (Last Monday: 15%)

Mordaunt v Truss

Mordaunt: 41% (Last Monday: 51%)

Truss: 48% (Last Monday: 33%)

Don’t know: 11% (Last Monday: 16%)

Some of the five Tory leadership contenders will be hoping for a game changing moment from this ITV debate to keep them in the race.

By tomorrow night, there will be just four contenders for Conservative leader and prime minister, after MPs take part in the third round of voting. And by Wednesday there will be just two, if all goes to plan.

Here is what's at stake for the five:

Rishi Sunak - The frontrunner so far among MPs will be aiming not to trip up or be drawn into damaging rows that expose weaknesses.

Penny Mordaunt - Needs a strong performance to consolidate her lead over Liz Truss, and convince Tory MPs that her surge in support is more than a flash in the pan.

Liz Truss - Under pressure to make up ground on Mordaunt and cement her status as the right-wing candidate to take on Rishi Sunak in the run-off.

Kemi Badenoch - Her performance in Friday's Channel 4 debate went down very well with Tory members, according to one poll which put her way out in front of her rivals. Will be hoping to build on that tonight.

Tom Tugendhat - His team say his Friday debate performance put him right back in the frame, but others are urging him to drop out. Perhaps his final chance to make his case.

Today's leadership debate is a crucial opportunity for candidates to grab the attention of Conservative Party members who will decide between two finalists in the contest in a postal ballot.

By looking at who makes up the membership, we can see the type of people the candidates want to win over.

Professor Tim Bale, heads up the Party Members Project, jointly run by Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University.

He says the average Tory member is "far from being representative of voters as a whole", with significantly more male members than female.

They're generally better off, prof Bale says, not as ethnically diverse as the general population, and they're heavily concentrated in the south of England.

However, "they're not quite as elderly as some imagine," he says, adding "on average they're actually in their late 50s".

It's not clear how many Conservative Party members there are, as they are the only major UK party not to routinely release membership figures.

A Conservative Party press officer said: "There were 160,000 eligible members during the previous leadership election. There will be more members this time."

Read more here.

Jacob Rees-Mogg has responded to a tweet by leadership candidate and former chancellor Rishi Sunak that we reported a short while ago.

The Brexit opportunities minister, who is backing Liz Truss, described Sunak's pledge to scrap or reform all EU laws on the UK statute book by the next general election "surprising".