Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak during the live television debate for the candidates for leadership of the Conservative party, hosted by Channel 4.Penny Mordaunt and Rishi Sunak during the live television debate for the candidates for leadership of the Conservative party, hosted by Channel 4.The five candidates still standing for the leadership of the Conservative party were in action in aTom Tugendhat was the only one able to answer freelywas the only person able to do it.
Badenoch and Tugendhat felt more off the cuff, and Sunak was a more fluid performer here than he has been on the radio over the last 48 hours. Truss felt rigid and dogmatic.In a crucial exchange that was mostly Sunak v Truss, the foreign secretary told the former chancellor that Covid was a once-in-a-century occurrence, and that the government should look accordingly at paying it back over a longer term.
All five are despair