There's been lots of talk about the diversity of this Tory leadership's candidate pool, with more than half of the 11 MPs who put themselves forward being from ethnic minority backgrounds and four being women.

And one man claims he had a lot to do with it.

Writing for The Times, former prime minister David Cameron recalls dedicating the beginning of his time as Tory leader to ensuring Conservative candidates and MPs were more diverse. He writes:

Finding time to remind the paper's readers of Conservatives' "firsts - compared with Labour's" - Cameron lists some notable achievements:

Sayeeda Warsi, the first Muslim female cabinet minister; Sajid Javid, the first chancellor from an ethnic minority; Priti Patel, the first female home secretary from an ethnic minority; and, of course,Theresa May, Britain’s second female prime minister. "All before Labour has even had a female leader."

We look at what this contest's diverse line-up means for UK politics here.

Ben Wright
Political correspondent

There's still an assumption that Rishi Sunak is the frontrunner - and so will get one of the spots in the final run-off that goes to the party membership over the summer - but there's a really open fight for second place.

A few days ago it looked like Penny Mordaunt, who came second in the most recent ballot, had all the momentum - that has flagged a bit and she has all the work to do tonight in the next TV debate to try and regain that momentum.

Liz Truss, who was in third after the last vote, had a pretty poor debate on Friday. She needs a strong showing to reassure all her backers in parliament that she's the right person to go through to the run-off.

And it's a really tough fight between Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch who are also in this - it is a surprisingly volatile race still.

A good performance can really set one of these candidates alight - and might seal them a place in the final two - and a bad performance could knock off somebody who, at the moment, looks like one of the frontrunners.

As I say, this is a really volatile contest.

Image source, EPA

A bit more now from Spectator editor Fraser Nelson who has been speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend.

He said tonight's TV debate - the second of three - would be "make or break" for Liz Truss's campaign.

He said: "She has a great following among Tory activists because she loves revving them up in meetings.

"But that kind of effervescent 'Miss Dynamite' persona was not at all evident during the debate [on Friday] where she came across as surly and not entirely sure of her own positions."

"She would have to have a very good night tonight."

Penny Mordaunt has been criticised by Tory leadership rivals over her stance on people's right to legally change their gender.

She has hit back at claims she ever backed gender self-identification - which means alllowing people to make the change without a medical diagnosis.

Here's what's going on

In 2018, Mordaunt – then the women and equalities minister – told MPs "trans men are men, trans women are women" at the launch of a consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act.

Today, The Sunday Times reported, external it had seen a leaked government document suggesting Mordaunt - while in the same job - favoured removing at least one of the medical requirements needed for a person to transition.

Mordaunt, now trade minister, told the BBC earlier that the leaked document in fact proves she believes a trans person should be diagnosed with gender dysphoria to legally change their gender. You can read more about what self-ID is here.

Image source, PA Media

Gender and trans issues are a big talking point for the Conservatives, with some in the party known to have strong views on it. Take the launch event for fellow leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch – gender neutral toilets at the central London venue were renamed "men’s" and "women's", external using handwritten signs.

Asked to clarify her beliefs last week, Mordaunt said she'd rather talk about the cost of living crisis but – when pressed – eventually told Sky News that trans women "are not biological women like me, but the law recognises them in their new gender and that's very simple and straightforward". But she added: "Westminster is tying itself in knots over it."

At Friday's televised leadership debate, Badenoch and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss accused Mordaunt of pushing self-ID while equalities minister.

"We all know what's going on," Mordaunt told the BBC this morning, in an apparent reference to a smear campaign against her. "This is the type of toxic politics that people want to get away from."

It's expected this will come up again in tonight’s debate on ITV.

Image source, PA Media

The Tory leadership race is becoming defined by mud-slinging, says Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend, he said Penny Mordaunt has been complaining that it's a "terrible character assassination race" but added she should expect that as the bookies' current favourite.

"Now she - the way things are going - is more likely than anyone else to be PM, so her record is being scrutinised," he said.

"But the Tories are getting far better at blowing poison darts at each other than they are at laying plausible alternative visions so you are getting to a race defined so far by mud," Nelson added.

The magazine editor said there is also a lot of vote trading going on behind the scenes to see who is going to come behind the "assumed front runner" Rishi Sunak.

Nelson said: "I'm struck by how many MPs I speak to who talk in terms of who they want to stop rather than who they want to promote."

He continued:

Referring to the selection of other former Tory leaders in the past, he said: "But that fits a trend, after all Iain Duncan Smith was not Michael Portillo, John Major was not Michael Heseltine."

Earlier we told you about Rishi Sunak’s article in the Telegraph, external. In it, he says he was warned not to back Brexit before the 2016 referendum.

But what position did each candidate take on Brexit ahead of the vote, and what have they been saying during the leadership campaign?

Rishi Sunak

Before Brexit: Sunak voted to leave the EU, calling it "by the far the toughest decision I have had to make since becoming an MP".

Now: He continues to back pro-Brexit policies, promising to ditch EU laws "holding Britain back" in a Telegraph article, external.

Penny Mordaunt

Before Brexit: Mordaunt supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum and was one of the leading faces of the Leave campaign.

Now: Writing in the Sun, external, Mordaunt says on day one as PM she would start the work to "deliver the Brexit dividend"

Tom Tugendhat

Before Brexit: Tugendhat campaigned against Brexit, supporting continued membership of the EU in the 2016 referendum.

Now: He now says he accepts the outcome of the referendum and stick to Boris Johnson’s Brexit promises.

Kemi Badenoch

Before Brexit: Badenoch supported Brexit before the referendum and in her first speech to Parliament said leaving the EU "the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom".

Now: In the Express, external, she wrote the referendum "sent a clear message to the heart of Whitehall" and promised to deliver post-Brexit change.

Liz Truss

Before Brexit: Truss backed the Remain campaign ahead of the referendum in 2016.

Now: Her position has shifted markedly, reinventing herself as a Eurosceptic and outlining plans to deliver the benefits of Brexit.

There's still a long way to go before we'll know who's replacing Boris Johnson – but we're down to the last few days for Tory MPs to decide which two candidates will make it onto the final shortlist.

Here's what we can expect before then:

Monday 18 July – Third round of voting by Tory MPs with results at 20:00 BST

Tuesday 19 July – Fourth round of voting, as well as the third TV debate on Sky News

Wednesday 20 July – Final round of voting takes place, leaving two rivals to go head-to-head for the top job

Hustings for members of the Conservative Party will then be held around the country – starting from Friday 22 July.

The winner will be announced on Monday 5 September after a postal ballot, completed by fewer than 200,000 Tory party members.

Image source, .

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us, welcome. Here's a quick rundown of all the key events from today - and what's still to come.

Tugendhat versus Johnson

• On the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, Tom Tugendhat went to great lengths to distance himself from Boris Johnson, suggesting the PM span "more fiction than reality" in the Partygate scandal
• Elsewhere, he laid out plans to cut fuel duty by 10p a litre and slash energy bills - but failed to explain how he'd fund either

Mordaunt defends gender record

• Also on the BBC's morning show, Penny Mordaunt responded to what she called "toxic politics" and "smears" on her record over gender self-identification of trans people. She said she believes a trans person needs to have diagnosed gender dysphoria to legally change their gender
• She was speaking after The Sunday Times reported, external it had seen a leaked document which showed Mordaunt favoured removing at least one of the medical requirements needed
• She also outlined plans to raise basic and middle income tax thresholds, in line with inflation, and half VAT on fuel - admitting she'd have to borrow money to cover "day to day costs"

Raab, Duncan Smith and Rowley

• Backers for Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch were on Sky News, pushing their campaigns
• There was the usual mud-flinging, with former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith - firmly in Team Truss - laying out concerns he's got about Mordaunt, Tugendhat and Badenoch

Coming up...

• All eyes will be on ITV at 19:00 for the second televised debate, featuring all five contenders
• It comes on the eve of the next round of voting, which will see the next candidate with the lowest votes knocked out, before a third debate on Sky News on Tuesday

Image source, PA Media

As we've reported, candidate Rishi Sunak has written in the Telegraph that he'll scrap EU law still on the UK's books that slows economic growth., external

Interestingly, he begins the article by saying he was warned not to back Brexit before the 2016 referendum.

"I was advised by people I respected not just that leaving the EU was a bad idea for Britain – they also warned me that backing Brexit would mean the end of my political career," he writes.

"I listened to the advice, took it seriously and weighed my decision carefully. But none of it altered my conviction that Britain would be better off outside the EU, unshackled from its low-growth, bureaucratic mindset.

"I strongly believe that I made the right decision in backing the Leave campaign.

"Because of Brexit, 21st Century Britain will be a sovereign, global, free-trading nation with full control over its laws, regulations and international trade policy."

Could the next prime minister ditch net zero?published at 14:27 British Summer Time 17 July 2022

14:27 BST 17 July 2022

Jonah Fisher
BBC environment correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

It was until recently regarded as settled policy, supported by all major political parties and written into UK law.

The policy called for "net zero" - the rapid reduction in climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions so we stopped putting more emissions into the atmosphere than we took out.

But the combination of a cost of living crisis, and the need to find a new prime minister, has called into question Britain's commitment to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

That's despite there being clear consensus among scientists that immediate action is needed if we are to have a chance of keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C.

None of the five remaining contenders in the Conservative leadership contest openly questions the science on which the net zero policies are based: that humans are warming the planet at an accelerating rate.

But differences emerge over whether net zero represents an opportunity or a cost, what should be done - and crucially how fast change should happen.

• Read more from Jonah here

We heard earlier that Alok Sharma, the UK's COP26 president, is concerned about the “lukewarm” attitudes of some of the Tory leadership contenders on the climate crisis.

Having already vowed to create millions of “green jobs” if elected leader, Penny Mordaunt – who finished last week as the bookmakers’ favourite to replace Boris Johnson – has now told the Guardian, external she will commit to both the UK’s eco-friendly farming plan and switching to more renewable energy.

The trade minister is attempting to convince colleagues there is a positive case for net zero, because of the jobs it can create - in contrast to some of her rivals.

Kemi Badenoch previously branded net zero “unliteral economic disarmament”, while Tom Tugendhat told the BBC this morning he believed in the idea but needed to see policy and planning “which nobody has set out”. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have been less vocal about climate and the environment in the contest.

Rishi Sunak has tweeted about an article he's written in the Sunday Telegraph, stating that if he's elected, by the time of the next general election, he plans to scrap or reform all "EU law, red tape and bureaucracy" that's "slowing economic growth".

Earlier we brought you live updates from Penny Mordaunt's interview on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme. Here's the moment she was quizzed about accusations she's changed her mind on people's right to legally change their gender.

"We all know what's going," she tells Sophie Raworth, insisting it's an example of what she calls "toxic politics".

The leadership hopeful also faced a round of quickfire questions with "yes" or "no" answers - and a couple of "buts".

Watch the full clip above - and catch up on the full interview in our posts below.

A bit more now from Kemi Badenoch's campaign manager Lee Rowley.

Rowley has called on rival Penny Mordaunt to answer questions over her record on gender self-identification.

Speaking to Sky's Sophie Ridge on Sunday this morning, he described the trans debate as a very difficult issue, with very entrenched views on both sides, that needs to be handled sensitively.

He said: "Penny has a set of questions to answer. I don’t think she really answered those particularly well in the debate on Friday - we’ll see whether she does tonight.

"Either Penny did agree with self-ID and is now saying that she didn’t – why?

"Or Penny didn’t agree with self-ID but it looks as though the civil service and the government decided to do it anyway – how did she let that happen?"

As we reported earlier, Mordaunt defended herself on BBC's Sunday Morning show, describing media reports around her record on this issue as "smears".

"We all know what is going on. This is the type of toxic politics people want to get away from."

She continued: "There is a number of smears going on in the papers. My colleagues are very angry and upset that this is how the leadership contest is being dragged down."

Lee Rowley, Kemi Badenoch's campaign manager, was grilled earlier by Sky's Sophy Ridge about Badenoch's perceived lack of experience.

He pointed out that former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair both had no ministerial experience before becoming PM.

He said Kemi has more ministerial experience than some of the people who have been big figures in the UK's political system over the past 20 years.

"I think that the public are looking for something different," said Rowley.

"What Kemi offers is both the ability to change, the ability to say actually we’ve done some things, lots of things well over the last 12 years, but we need to do something different now."

Badenoch wants to get to the "root cause of an issue, work out what the problem is" and find solutions, he added.

"She's in it to win it," he stated about her leadership campaign.

Image source, Reuters

Attorney General Suella Braverman has said there "will be a bit more borrowing" under Liz Truss' £30bn tax cut plans.

Braverman has thrown her support behind the foreign secretary's campaign after being knocked out of the Tory leader contest.

Speaking to Times Radio, Braverman said: "Liz has worked in the Treasury in a senior position and when she says she wants to cut taxes, I entirely agree with her."

Asked if it would mean more borrowing, the Conservative MP replied: "Not necessarily entirely based on more borrowing, I think there will be a bit more borrowing but we will be able to grow our way out of the issue to afford tax cuts.

"We know that when we cut taxes there is more investment by the private sector, there are more jobs, there is more return to the Exchequer."

Touching on the gender self-ID debate, which has become a hot topic in the contest, she said Truss was taking a "common sense approach to identity politics".

"She knows what a woman is, which is becoming worryingly rare these days in political debate," Braverman added.

You may have seen our live updates from Tom Tugendhat's interview on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme - including this interesting snippet.

In a back-and-forth about the need for leaders to be honest, Tugendhat, who's vying to replace Boris Johnson, said it was "perfectly clear" the current PM hadn't been forthcoming about parties held at Downing Street during lockdown.

"The alignment of stories that he came to on the Partygate scandal seems to have been rather more fictional than reality," the former soldier told Sophie Raworth.

Watch the full clip above - and catch up on the full interview in our posts below.

As we've reported, it'll soon be down to an estimated 175,000 Conservative Party members to vote for their next leader - and our PM - from the final run-off selected by MPs. So who are they?

Like members of the other major parties, Tories tend to be older, more middle class and more white than the rest of the population – meaning they're "far from being representative of voters as a whole", according to Professor Tim Bale, head of the Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University Party Members Project.

Bale's most recent research, from January 2020, suggests:

• 63% of Conservative Party members are male, and 37% female
• 6% are under 24-years-old, 36% are aged 25 to 49-years-old, 19% are aged between 50 and 64-years-old, and 39% are over 65
• 24% backed Remain in the EU referendum, and 76% backed Leave
• 56% live in London and the south-east of England, 18% in the Midlands and Wales, 20% in the north of England and 6% in Scotland
• 80% belong to the highest social economic groups known as ABC1

But for anyone hoping to sign up to the party to have a say in who'll be the next PM, you’re out of luck. You have to have been a paid-up member for at least three months to take part in the leadership ballot.

Read more about the electorate here.

Rishi Sunak is the former chancellor, who launched his leadership bid with a focus on the economy, ruling out tax cuts before public finances improve.

Despite his reputation being dented by a controversy over his wife's tax affairs – and being fined for breaching lockdown rules – Sunak currently leads after the last round of voting by Tory MPs, with backers including former leadership rivals Grant Shapps and Jeremy Hunt, as well as Deputy PM Dominic Raab.

Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt may be one of the lesser known faces, but she's popular with Tory party members. Plus, at the end of last week she was the bookmakers' favourite. She has promised to cut VAT on fuel and to raise the basic and middle earner income tax thresholds in line with inflation. Her backers include senior backbenchers Andrea Leadsom and David Davis.

A Royal Navy reservist, Mordaunt made history in 2019 when she became the UK’s first female defence secretary – a post she held for just 85 days until Boris Johnson replaced then PM Theresa May.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss decided to lead on promising immediate tax cuts, a reversal of the National Insurance hike and a long-term commitment to reducing the size of the state.

Popular among Conservative Party members, Truss secured early backing from Boris Johnson loyalists Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, and Jacob Rees-Mogg – as well as former leadership hopeful and staunch Brexiteer Suella Braverman.

Former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch has pledged tax cuts and low regulation – while being critical of the UK’s net zero emissions targets.

A former software engineer who spent some of her childhood in the US and Nigeria, she became an MP in 2017 and went on to become equalities minister in 2021 then minister for levelling up under Michael Gove, who has backed her leadership bid.

Tom Tugendhat, who's chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, has also pledged to cut National Insurance and fuel duty – and to increase investment outside of the south-east if he becomes leader.

A former Army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tugendhat projects pragmatism rather than populism and has been backed by ex-cabinet minister Damian Green and the current international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

A bit more now from former party leader and Truss-backer Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

On Sky earlier, he praised Truss's record in government as "strong" and said she had made some "phenomenal deals".

He said the Treasury was "bound on the wrong course which could seriously damage us over the next two years".

Sir Iain said there was an "inflationary spiral going on" adding that the war in Ukraine had made things even worse as far as energy was concerned.

However, he added: "But here in the UK we do have to bear some of the blame for the fact that we have inflation rising on top of all of that.

"And that's down to the Bank of England and the Treasury's failure over, I think, monetary policy."

He said the Bank of England had "kept on printing huge sums of money", which he said inflated the economy as well as keeping interest rates low.

And he took aim at Sunak who he said "signed off" on that money printing.

"The Chancellor no less," Sir Iain said.

"The Treasury has the right to say no to the money printing bit and they didn't, that has fuelled inflation."