John Hughes from Birmingham asks both candidates why the NHS is “broken”, referring to issues getting support during his cancer treatment.

Both candidates express sympathy for his plight.

Sunak acknowledges the NHS has been under “enormous strain” while recovering from Covid – and pledges to make sure it gets the funding it needs.

He later says the NHS can be improved if “we do things differently” – with technological innovation part of the solution.

Truss also pledges to change the way the NHS operates – saying she favours “fewer layers of management and less central direction”.

She says she is “committed” to extra money that’s been announced for the health service – but disagrees with Sunak that national insurance should rise to help fund this.

Image source, TalkTV Presents The Sun's Showdown

Rishi Sunak jokes he would like to ask Liz Truss how she has been spending her birthday.

He goes on to say he knows what he's done to help people over last couple of years as chancellor, mentioning the furlough scheme and support he's provided for people with energy bills.

"I'll always do more as the situation demands it," he says.

We need to think about "our children and our grandchildren", Sunak says, saying politicians need to think about who will pay for the country's borrowing.

Turning now to the first question, with Liz Truss asked what question she would like to put to her rival Rishi Sunak.

After stating her hopes for a fair campaign, Truss asks Sunak what he would do as prime minister to help people struggling with the cost of living.

Sunak responds by first wishing Truss a happy birthday, and then goes on to say he has already shown during his time as chancellor that he can provide supports, such as the furlough scheme.

He says vulnerable people are soon due to get £1,200 to help with their bills, adding that he will "do more as the situation demands it" this autumn and winter.

If that isn't enough, he will come back and do more if needed to help with households' rising energy bills, he says.

Image source, TalkTV Presents The Sun's Showdown

In her opening pitch, Liz Truss says the next election will be about the cost of living and that the party has only two years to show they can deliver and make people’s lives better.

She says she will put money back in pockets from day one by “driving growth and delivering the opportunities that come from Brexit”.

Truss adds it is wrong that the UK has its highest tax burden in 70 years and that Sun readers want the party to keep to their 2019 manifesto commitment not to raise them.

She finishes by saying that she is somebody who does what they say they will do and that the party must reject the “voices of decline” that say Britain’s best years are behind us.

Image source, TalkTV Presents The Sun's Showdown

Rishi Sunak is invited to set out his stall first.

The former chancellor speaks of “immense” challenges and says he’s the man to take these on as prime minister.

He speaks of tackling rising energy bills and spiralling inflation.

He also promises to grow the economy, cutting “red tape” and bringing down taxes.

Sunak points to his career in the Treasury, during the Covid crisis, saying he has a “record you can believe in”.

David Wallace Lockhart
BBC political correspondent

It’s time for the second head-to-head leadership debate. This one is hosted by Talk TV and The Sun.

Some Tory MPs tuning in may be watching through their fingers, as there was no shortage of blue-on-blue attacks traded between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak last night.

She accused him of running a “project fear” campaign, and he labelled her tax plans a temporary “sugar rush”.

Will we see a repeat of such attacks? Or was there a rush of blood to the head in the first debate that’s now subsided?

Many Tories will hope things calm down a bit. After all, there’s a lot of these events left to go, and the party will have to try to come together afterwards.

...and we're off! The second Sunak-Truss debate in less than 24 hours begins.

Stay with us here for continuous updates.

David Wallace Lockhart
Political correspondent

It’s almost time for the second head-to-head leadership debate. This one is hosted by Talk TV and The Sun.

Some Tory MPs tuning in may be watching through their fingers, as there was no shortage of blue-on-blue attacks traded between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak last night.

She accused him of running a "project fear" campaign, and he labelled her tax plans a temporary "sugar rush".

Will we see a repeat of such attacks? Or was there a rush of blood to the head in the first debate that’s now subsided?

Many Tories will hope things calm down a bit. After all, there’s a lot of these events left to go, and the party will have to try to come together afterwards.

The second head-to-head debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will start in about 10 minutes. It will last an hour and be broadcast on The Sun's website and TalkTV at 18:00, external.

Stay on this page to follow live coverage of the discussion and reaction immediately after.

Image source, EPA

Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, has declined to publicly back either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, saying instead that he would support the person who he believed "can be trusted to invest in defence and make us safer from the threats that I think have grown in the last 12 months."

Wallace told The Sun: "The reality is the international community benchmarks defence by the GDP percentage, that's just the reality of it."

Liz Truss says she will increase the UK’s defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030. At the moment, defence spending is around 2.3% of GDP.

Rishi Sunak has not set a defence spending target, but was chancellor when the existing pledge to increase to 2.5% of GDP was made last month.

Some Tories have warned that "blue-on-blue" attacks between leadership candidates are feeding Labour some easy attack lines.

It's fair to say the Labour social media team seem to have been enjoying themselves today. They've compiled a video of interruptions and selective quotes from last night's BBC debate - with added fairground music.

Rishi Sunak has been out and about in north-west London, ahead of that second TV debate later.

He's shared images of himself among crowds in Stanmore. His rival, Liz Truss, was earlier in West Sussex.

While the race to be the UK's next prime minister continues, Boris Johnson remains the current occupant of No 10.

Boris Johnson has given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the Churchill Leadership Award during a virtual presentation - saluting Zelensky's courage in the face of the Russian invasion.

Johnson said he was proud of his work supporting Ukraine during his farewell speech to parliament last week.

Paul Seddon
Politics reporter

Liz Truss is ahead of Rishi Sunak in the race to be next Conservative leader and prime minister, according to polls of party members.

But how accurate are these polls and who carries them out?

Several polling companies have released surveys of what Tory voters and the public think of the contenders, but only two organisations have asked Tory members themselves - the only people who get a vote in this contest.

Image source, Reuters

YouGov, one of the UK's biggest polling companies, has so far released one voting intention poll of Tory members since the run-off between Truss and Sunakwas confirmed.

The survey, external indicates Truss is the favoured choice of 49% of respondents, compared to 31% for Sunak, with 15% saying they didn't know and 6% not intending to vote.

If the latter two categories are excluded, her lead extends to a sizeable 24-point margin.

Conservative Home, a popular website among Tory activists, is yet to publish a survey since the leadership contest narrowed to two.

But it did conduct several surveys earlier in the race when there were more contenders, including hypothetical run-offs between different candidates, which also suggested Truss would beat Sunak in a straight head-to-head.

Its latest review, when five candidates remained, placed Truss second and Sunak third, behind now-eliminated Kemi Badenoch.

If you'd like more of analysis of how these polls work and how reliable they are as a guide, click here.

Less than 24 hours after last night's BBC debate, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will meet again today for a discussion hosted by The Sun and TalkTV, set to air from 18:00.

TalkTV's political editor Kate McCann will be hosting the debate - presumably solo, after her co-host, the Sun's political editor Harry Cole, announced , externalhe had tested positive for Covid.

Speaking ahead of the debate, McCann said:

We will bring you live coverage of the discussion on this page - do join us.

Image source, Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Strong words now from union boss Mick Lynch, who brands Liz Truss a "right-wing fundamentalist".

Truss earlier attacked plans for further rail strikes tomorrow, calling these "completely irresponsible". She went on to say that she would curb industrial action if she became prime minister.

But such plans represent a "direct attack on one of the main pillars of our democracy", says Lynch, the secretary-general of the RMT union.

He denies Truss's accusation that strikes will hold the travelling public to ransom – instead saying it is "the British worker" who is the victim.

The public gave RMT members "tremendous support" during the last round of industrial action in June, he tells the BBC.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

China's foreign ministry has warned British politicians to not "hype" the "so-called China threat" in response to Rishi Sunak's statement terming China "the largest threat to Britain", external.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said:

Sunak tweeted, external that he would close all 30 of China's Confucius Institutes in the country if he wins.

The Confucius Institutes are government-run bodies which offer language and cultural programmes overseas, but which critics have said are tools for Beijing to spread propaganda under the guise of teaching.

State-run newspaper The Global Times also commented that Sunak is trying to win over Tory members by showing he - and not Liz Truss - is the "real hawkish leader against China", external.

Image source, Pool

Tory leadership hopeful Liz Truss is in West Sussex today, and has given an interview to broadcasters. Here's a summary of what she had to say.

On the tone of last night’s debate:

• Truss says she is “not going to criticise the other candidate” when asked if she felt her rival Rishi Sunak interrupted her too much
• “I put my case across,” she adds. “I think the audience understood what I was saying”

On a potential interview with Andrew Neil:

• Truss says “I haven’t decided yet exactly who I am going to be interviewed by at this stage” when asked if she will make herself available, like Rishi Sunak, for a grilling by veteran political journalist Andrew Neil on Channel 4

On tomorrow’s rail strikes:

• The foreign secretary labels the planned walkout by the RMT union “completely irresponsible”
• She dismisses the union's reasons for striking, saying railway staff are “well-rewarded for the work they do”