Veterans minister Johnny Mercer warns that "on the current trajectory" the Conservative Party could lose the next general election.

In a tweet, external, Mercer says the "puerile nature" of the leadership contest is "embarrassing".

"Time to raise the standards," he adds.

It comes after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who is backing Liz Truss, mocked leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak on Twitter for his expensive clothing.

Dorries referenced reports that Sunak was pictured wearing "Prada shoes worth £450" and a "£3,500 bespoke suit" during a visit to Teesside.

The tweet prompted Tory MP Angela Richardson, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, to give a terse reply, external and tweet that she was muting Dorries.

Image source, .

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will go head-to-head tonight in a debate to become the next Conservative Party leader and prime minister.

The pair will head to Stoke-on-Trent for a debate at 21:00 BST which you can watch via this page, it will be televised on BBC One and broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live.

The two candidates will face a live audience of people who voted Tory in the last election.

Sunak and Truss will be put through their paces by Sophie Raworth who is hosting the debate.

The briefing war between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss has become “incredibly vicious”, Sebastian Payne, Whitehall editor at the Financial Times, says.

“I think probably the worst I've seen of any Tory leadership contest, given the fact this final head-to-head stage is just a couple of days in,” Payne adds.

He tells BBC Breakfast the reason for such fierce rivalry between the candidates is because Sunak’s camp is fighting to get ahead in the polls, while Truss’s team “feel the same way too” and are “taking nothing for granted”.

Anna Isaac, economics editor at the Independent, says the leadership hopefuls have an impossible task ahead of them.

Isaac says: “They've got to look like people that can win a contest, that can win a general election, but also bring the party together. So they've both got to attack one another, but also look like unifying figures.”

Image source, Jonathan Hordle/ITV/PA Wire

Police are investigating a menacing letter sent to former Conservative Party leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt, which included threats to her and her family, Portsmouth News reports.

Mordaunt was the most recent leadership hopeful to be voted out of the race to be the UK's next prime minister.

The threatening letter was sent to Mordaunt's Portsmouth North constituency office while she was still in the leadership contest.

A Hampshire Police spokesperson said, "safeguarding measures were put in place to minimise the risk" and "inquiries into this incident are ongoing".

Image source, PA Media

Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said Rishi Sunak, who he is backing in the leadership contest, can be trusted with the NHS and the challenges facing the health service.

Writing in The Times, external, Hancock, who was in government from 2018 to 2021, says Sunak "is clear that he would fire the starting gun on clearing the NHS backlog the moment his premiership begins".

Sunak has pledged to tackle the problems in the NHS in five-point plan that includes the creation of a backlogs taskforce, while also requiring all hospital trusts to audit waiting lists within a month.

Hancock writes that he "love[s] the NHS", pointing out that Sunak "is from an NHS family" as his father was a doctor in the health service and his mother a pharmacist.

"The backlog is a national emergency. It requires someone to really grip it and put in place the sort of emergency response that it warrants and Rishi is the person to do that," he says.

Arguments over who will take the tougher line over Chinapublished at 11:50 British Summer Time 25 July 2022

11:50 BST 25 July 2022

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Tonight's debate is the first time the two candidates have gone head-to-head in a leadership contest but it won’t be the first time they’ve clashed.

The biggest divisions have been on tax and the economy but today the rival counts are arguing who would take the tougher line over China.

Rishi Sunak accused Beijing of stealing Western technology and infiltrating our universities while allies of Liz Truss said Sunak had pursued closer economic ties with the Treasury.

Former Conservative Co-Chairman Amanda Milling said the contest so far had been toxic and warned it could do lasting damage to the party.

The tone of the debate could be crucial as well as the timing – Tory members will begin receiving their ballot papers in about a week.

Polls suggest the ex-chancellor is trailing behind the foreign secretary so he’ll have to use every opportunity to make up lost ground.

Image source, Getty Images

Turning to comments from the opposition, where Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the Tory leadership candidates while pitching his party's vision for economic growth if in government.

In a speech in Liverpool, he attacked the economic plans set out by the rivals, saying that, "both Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss rage against the dying of the Thatcherite light".

"They don't understand: economic strength in the 21st Century needs partnership," he said.

Starmer went on to say that Labour would take Britain forward with a fresh start, while in contrast, the Conservatives "want to take us back to the past".

Ahead of the BBC leadership debate later, he said people "will see a clear contrast between my Labour Party and the Thatcherite cosplay on display tonight".

He described Sunak as "the architect of the cost of living crisis" and Truss as "the latest graduate from the school of magic money tree economics".

"Neither of them has the answers to the economic challenges that we face," he said, adding that neither candidate understood the nature of the modern economy.

Image source, PA Media

More now from Education Secretary James Cleverly, who was out to bat for Liz Truss this morning.

Discussing the man who Truss and Rishi Sunak are vying to replace, Cleverly said he would not rule out supporting Boris Johnson returning to the cabinet, but that it is not a decision for him to take.

Asked on Sky News if the outgoing prime minister should get a senior role in government, Cleverly said: "He's an incredibly talented politician. Whether he would want to serve at the moment after the bruising that he's got might be another matter, but it's not for me to start dictating to Liz who she puts into her cabinet."

Image source, PA Media

Taxation is a key point of contention in this leadership campaign, and one Truss supporter has come out to defend the foreign secretary's plans today.

Education Secretary James Cleverly said he would not want to see interest rates at 7%, adding that Truss' pledge to cut taxes is about "maximising the growth in the economy" and reducing pressures on families.

Asked about the policy being questioned by the Office for Budget Responsibility, he told Sky News: "Of course we listen to it... but ultimately it's the decision of politicians, which are then implemented by officials."

Asked if 7% interest rates would be acceptable, he said: "Ultimately we want to keep interest rates modest. "A big jump in interest rates will hit people who are already finding bills difficult, and that's not what we want to see. But ultimately what we need to do is make sure that we have that economic boost."

Image source, .

It's being reported this morning that a new row has broken out between the Tory leadership candidates over China.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Rishi Sunak is accusing Liz Truss of helping Beijing to infiltrate British universities when she was an education minister.

The paper says Sunak has declared China to be "the biggest long-term threat" to the UK, and that politicians have turned a blind eye to China's "nefarious activities" for too long.

In response, Truss' campaign says she has "strengthened Britain’s position on China since becoming foreign secretary" and that this will continue when she becomes PM, while also suggesting Sunak has consistently been soft on China.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is backing Truss, has also weighed in, saying "over the last two years, the Treasury has pushed hard for an economic deal with China" despite sanctions against him and other MPs and peers and a record of human rights abuses.

Chris Mason
Political editor

"One is the continuity candidate who stabbed Boris in the back. The other is the change candidate who stayed loyal."

A senior Conservative MP recounts the words of a local party member, when I ask why so many polls and surveys of Tory party members suggest Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is comfortably more popular than the former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, right now at least.

Neither camp dispute the handicapping in this race, before a vote has yet been cast: Such is the consistency of the evidence and the size of the current suggested gap between them.

This is the vital context as Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak head to Stoke-on-Trent.

To offer you a quick canter through it, there was this poll from YouGov, external, described by the pollster as offering "no good news for Rishi Sunak" when there were still four contenders in the race.

In short, Liz Truss appears out in front. Rishi Sunak has lots of catching up to do.

And so this debate, and the ones to follow, really matter: The stakes are high and the cock-up potential is higher.

Image source, .

Attacks from the Sunak and Truss camps on their rival are front and centre in many of today's newspapers, with foreign policy dominating the latest briefing war.

The i says the leadership race has become "increasingly bitter", adding that Sunak's campaign is accusing Truss of flip-flopping on the threat of China, while Team Truss claims Beijing is "effectively endorsing [Sunak] for PM".

The Daily Telegraph leads on this row over China with Sunak accusing Truss of helping Beijing to infiltrate British universities when she was an education minister.

The Daily Mail covers the same dispute, saying Sunak's "get-tough stance" was called into question by his rival, with allies of Truss reportedly accused him of being "soft" on the country.

The Guardian's coverage focuses on migration and how both candidates have been accused by human rights groups of "cruelty and immorality" over promises to remove asylum seekers from Britain by implementing more Rwanda-style deals.

The Times focuses on attacks by both camps over China, migration and the economy ahead of tonight's BBC leadership debate.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage ahead of the Conservative Party leadership debate tonight when Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will go head to head to become next Tory leader and prime minister.

Over the weekend, both candidates vowed to toughen controls on migration into the UK as part of their leadership bids.

Rishi Sunak said he would tighten the definition of who qualifies for asylum and introduce a cap on refugee numbers.

Liz Truss said she would extend the UK's Rwanda asylum plan and increase the number of Border Force staff.

Meawhile, a new row has broken out between the candidates over China - with Sunak accusing Truss of helping Beijing to infiltrate British universities when she was an education minister, while Truss’ allies said the Treasury, under Sunak's leadership, had pushed hard for an economic deal with China.

The briefing war is becoming increasingly hostile as they prepare to face each other tonight in Our Next Prime Minister, presented by Sophie Raworth and broadcast on BBC One, BBC News Channel, iPlayer and BBC Radio 5 Live from 21:00 BST.

Stay with us as we bring you the latest developments and analysis.