The Tory leadership debate on TalkTV is cancelled after presenter Kate McCann faints and collapses live on air
In a statement, Talk TV says McCann is fine but "the medical advice was that we shouldn't continue with the debate"
Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had been taking part in a second head-to-head debate, this time for The Sun and TalkTV, when a loud crash was heard in the studio
Truss looked panicked and the broadcast was suspended
Earlier both campaign teams were urged "to be mindful of tone" and have a debate that's "respectful and dignified"
During Monday's BBC debate in Stoke-on-Trent, Sunak and Truss talked over each other and clashed on taxes, their Brexit records and the schools they went to
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says both Tory leadership candidates "are the architects of the mess this country is in"
Image source, PA MediaThe BBC's Chris Mason and Faisal Islam provide their input
Last night the Newscast team were backstage at the BBC's leadership debate.
In the latest edition of the podcast, Adam Fleming, Chris Mason and Alex Forsyth discuss what Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss had to say, while Chris chats about his role in the debate.
We have some more detail now from the Opinium polling that took place after the leadership debate on Monday.
It found that while Conservative voters thought Liz Truss performed better in the debate, Sunak was more popular with Labour voters:
Image source, .The poll suggests voters thought Sunak is the more competent candidate, by 48% vs 29% for Truss.
Voters also viewed Sunak as being trusted to handle the economy, by 48% vs 25% for Truss:
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Image source, PA MediaIf you're just joining us or need a catch-up, here's a look at the key developments in Conservative leadership contest:
Image source, Getty ImagesTurning away briefly from the leadership contest now to comments from Tory MP Steve Baker who is warning against Boris Johnson potentially staying on in Downing Street.
It comes after Conservative peer and former party treasurer Lord Cruddas claimed yesterday that Johnson "does not want to resign" and "wished that he could carry on" as prime minister.
Cruddas said the comments were made to him by the prime minister over lunch at Chequers on Friday, but in response a No 10 spokeswoman said that Johnson has resigned as party leader and "set out his intention to stand down as PM when the new leader is in place".
Image source, EPASpeaking to the Huffington Post, external today, Baker, who backed Johnson in his 2019 campaign, compared the prospect of him staying on after resigning, to US President Donald Trump's refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election.
“The idea the prime minister can continue now he’s resigned after the collapse of his government is risible. It’s not going to happen," Baker says.
“But the act of encouraging people to think it might, really does risk the type of nonsense that Trump fomented in the US.
“It’s not responsible, it’s not right and Boris should abandon this fantasy about continuing."
Councillor Graham Hutton, chair of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Conservative Association has been sharing his views on how last night's debate went.
Cllr Hutton told BBC News that he felt Rishi Sunak "interrupted too much", while Liz Truss was "calm and collected".
Conservative party members, who are thought to number around 160,000, are responsible for choosing the next prime minister at this stage of the leadership contest.
Hutton said he has "enormous respect" for Sunak, but the debate should not have been about shouting down the opposition. "It should have been about policies", he added.
Fiona Mounsey, another Conservative party member, said: "I found it quite unpleasant how Rishi Sunak kept cutting across Liz Truss".
Mounsey said Truss "came across as much more controlled, much more professional", while Sunak came across as "quite arrogant".
There's no rest for the candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who will face off once again tonight in their second live TV debate following last night's BBC-hosted debate in Stoke.
The foreign secretary, who is celebrating her 47th birthday today, and the former chancellor will go head-to-head in a TalkTV/Sun event at 18:00 BST.
The event will be hosted by TalkTV's political editor Kate McCann, after the Sun's political editor Harry Coyle had to pull out of the event after testing positive for Covid-19.
A snap poll by Opinium, based on a sample of 1,032 voters, found that overall 39% believed Sunak had performed best in last night's debate compared to 38% for Truss, but Tory voters split 47% to 38% in favour of the foreign secretary.
Reality Check
Image source, PA MediaWe've taken a look at some of the claims made by the leadership hopefuls in last night's debate and fact-checked them for accuracy.
One section of the debate involved the candidates being asked to give one-word answers as to whether Brexit was to blame for the recent queues seen at Dover and Folkestone, to which both replied "no".
But Brexit is one of the main factors involved. When the UK was in the EU, there was much less need for rigorous checks at these ports because UK citizens could travel freely around the EU.
This "freedom of movement" ended with Brexit and now French officials have to stamp and check passports. The change means more staff and bigger facilities are now required to make the checks.
This can take up to a minute per person - according to travel expert Simon Calder - rather than a few seconds (under the old system). Other factors that contributed to the travel disruption included an initial shortage of French border staff at Dover on Friday.
Dharshini David
Economics Correspondent
The OECD and the International Monetary Fund reckon the UK faces the lethal combination of the slowest growth and highest inflation of any major economy in 2023. Living standards are falling at the fastest rate since the 1950s.
Liz Truss’s tax cuts, around £30bn, might give households and businesses breathing space. But most economists say that could boost demand and inflation - requiring even higher interest rates, more pain.
So Rishi Sunak advocates waiting to lower taxes, with an eye to keeping the public finances under control. But it'll be hard to ignore the growing clamour for more help.
Some analysts say the UK should focus on investing - in skills, training and infrastructure - to boost long-term prosperity. On average, the UK has lagged behind competitors on growth since the financial crisis. The IMF says there’s a case for raising taxes to do so; a message few politicians would dare float.
Image source, PA MediaThe BBC's political correspondent, David Wallace Lockhart, will be answering your questions on the Tory leadership contest later this morning.
The Conservative Party is down to its two final candidates, with either Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss to be chosen by Tory members to become the UK's next prime minister.
What questions do you have about the Tory leadership race and last night's debate?
Please get in touch by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, external.
Tory MP David Davis, a supporter of Rishi Sunak, has criticised Liz Truss’s economic plans, saying he fears for his children with mortgages having to balance their books at the end of every month.
“[Truss’s] own economist said mortgage interest rates would go to a 7% base rate, so that means mortgages going up to eight, nine, 10% - four times what they are now,” he tells BBC Breakfast.
“Liz is holding out this wonderful world of tax cuts and high spending which frankly you can’t have together and ignoring the fact borrowing will go up - Rishi had to go to the heart of that and make it plain for ordinary people there will be consequences."
He says these debates aren't just about policy, they're about establishing character and ability.
“All the candidates compare themselves to Margaret Thatcher - why did Margaret Thatcher get through not one crisis but half a dozen?
“Because she had the courage, the principle and the intellect to deal with them and that's what you saw in Rishi last night.”
Jonathan Blake
BBC political correspondent
These two candidates went head-to-head for the first time and we saw and heard more from them than we have at any point in this campaign.
But what we saw and heard was more of the same - it was either candidate at pains to point out their background and how that informs their approach, putting forward their own policies and attacking each others.
It was Rishi Sunak the underdog going into last night’s contest by his own admission, and clearly going on the attack, leading to accusations that he was interrupting too much.
Liz Truss’s supporters said he was mansplaining - while she held firm, seemingly content to rise above it and make her arguments when she had the opportunity.
Both doubled down on their approach to the economy, which is the big dividing line in this contest.
That chasm grew ever wider last night with each ratcheting up their attacks on the other in terms of the consequences of Liz Truss's immediate tax cuts or Rishi Sunak trying to get inflation under control before thinking about taxes.
Tory leadership debate: Highlights from Our Next Prime Minister
Starmer says the UK needs change in government
More from Keir Starmer now, who says "we've got a government with its head in the sand, paralysed by this leadership contest that's going on".
"There's total frustration to see two Tory candidates talk about anything other than the practical steps they're going to take on the issues pressing down on people day in day out."
He says Liz Truss walked through the lobby and voted for every single tax rise "so what she's saying doesn't really have any credibility".
"Most people will be looking at that debate saying 'they're just throwing ideas out without any sense of how they're going to deliver them' - so I'm not taking what they're saying in these debates too seriously.
"I really don't think that after 12 failed years that the answer we need for the UK is another Tory leader.
"Particularly a Tory leader that was part of what's just happened, they were both serving in government - they are the architects of the mess this country is in."
Labour leader Keir Starmer says he was otherwise engaged when last night’s debate aired but he “watched as much as he could bear” on catch up.
Starmer says it showed the two contenders “taking lumps out of each other, talking over each other, talking about clothing and earrings instead of the health services”.
“If ever there was an example of a party that has absolutely lost the plot and any sense of purpose it was that debate last night,” Starmer tells BBC Breakfast.
He says he’s not going to support either of the candidates economic pledges.
“I see Rishi Sunak, who was running the economy until just a few weeks ago, acting as if he’s just come down from the moon, realised how bad everything is and says he’s going to declare a crisis if he’s made prime minister, so that’s not really credible.
“Then you’ve got Liz Truss who’s voted for 15 tax rises now in this sort of graduate of fantasy economics where she’s making promises without telling us how she’s going to fund them."
Image source, PA MediaWere they nice to each other? The short answer is no. Within minutes, the two candidates were at loggerheads - and once again it got very heated, with multiple interruptions.
The main battle was over the economy and tax. Truss said the UK was heading for a recession if it followed Sunak's economic plans. Visibly peeved, Sunak insisted the tax burden - the highest for 70 years - resulted from unprecedented levels of government spending needed to keep the economy afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The UK's relationship with China became a big feature of the debate. Sunak reiterated calls for a clampdown on Confucius Institutes in the UK. Significantly, Truss said she would like to see a clampdown on Chinese-owned companies like TikTok.
Both of the candidates argued about their positions on Brexit, as Sunak attacked Truss over previously supporting the Remain campaign. In response to questions about her economic plans, Truss accused Sunak of "scaremongering" and "Project Fear".
But both were broadly in agreement in their view of Boris Johnson, with Liz Truss giving the PM a 7/10 for his time in office, while Sunak said the PM deserved 10/10 for delivering Brexit.
Image source, .Hot on the heels of last night’s leadership debate, we’re hearing now from Tory MP Simon Clarke.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Clarke, who is backing Liz Truss, was asked if the combative nature of Monday’s debate could result in long-term damage for the Conservative Party.
He says there has to be a “full and frank” debate when it comes to issues such as tax and economic growth.
“We wouldn't want it to be a sterile exercise, we have to have these discussions and these debates and I felt that the debate did that clearly,” he adds.
Clarke says he will not criticise how Sunak, who has been accused of regularly interrupting Truss, handled the debate, but says it's important to "let the other side have their say".
“I'm not going to attach labels to how Rishi handled the debate. As I say, I think viewers will make up their own minds”, he says.
Chris Mason
Political editor
Image source, ReutersThis was a debate which crackled with energy and tetchiness underpinned by jeopardy.
The ultimate job interview for the ultimate job in British politics; would a studio audience and an audience at home, sufficiently wooed by Boris Johnson's Conservatives to give him a huge majority in 2019, warm to the prospect of potential Prime Minister Truss or Sunak three years on?
The audience in the room with us were fascinating; among them the most powerful people in the British electorate.
The most important people in UK politics are those who change their mind between Labour and the Conservatives.
Rishi Sunak, hesitant to land blows on Liz Truss in earlier debates, showed no such reticence here. Polling and surveys suggest he's some distance behind his rival and he appeared determined to attempt to shift the dial - ahead of ballot papers being sent to Conservative members in the next week or so.
Image source, .Many of the front pages focus on last night's Conservative leadership debate.
The Times reports that Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss ignored pleas from Tory party grandees to end the blue-on-blue hostilities.
The Guardian says the debate was "acrimonious" and describes the repeated clashes between the two candidates as "deeply damaging".
"Gloves are off: Tory contest turning nasty" is the headline on the front of the i.
The Daily Express says the "great divide" between the two candidates has been boiled down to one simple question - tax cuts now or later.
The Metro focuses on Rishi Sunak's concerns about Liz Truss's plans for the economy, with its headline reading: "You'll lose us the next election".
The Daily Telegraph highlights Truss's likening Sunak to Gordon Brown, and quotes her saying his refusal to cut tax would drive Britain into a recession.
The Daily Mail leads with a vow by Truss to stop "militant action from trade unions", saying she wants to raise the minimum threshold of support for strike action and double the required notice period to four weeks.
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Image source, PA MediaGood morning and welcome back to our live page as we resume coverage and analysis of last night's debate.
Here's a reminder of what happened:
We're closing down our live page now - thanks for reading.
Our team throughout the day was Jeremy Gahagan, Emily McGarvey, Aoife Walsh, Marita Moloney, Jack Burgess, Andrew Humphrey, Owen Amos, Nathan Williams, Richard Morris, Chas Geiger, Adam Durbin, and James FitzGerald.
We'll be back tomorrow with analysis and answers to your questions. In the meantime, watch the highlights in the post below, or read our Reality Check guide here.
Missed the debate or just want a recap? Here are some of the key moments in just two minutes.
Tory leadership debate: Highlights from Our Next Prime Minister