Tory leadership debate - live: Boris Johnson challenged on ‘letterbox’ comments, as candidates quizzed on Brexit, tax cuts and climate change
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Your support makes all the difference.The remaining Tory leadership candidates have clashed over Brexit, tax cuts and public spending during a heated televised debate that saw Boris Johnson go head-to-head with his rivals for the first time.
The five contenders put forward different plans on Brexit, with Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt saying they would be willing to delay Britain's departure from the EU in order to secure a deal, while Mr Johnson and Sajid Javid said they would not. Rory Stewart promised never to allow a no-deal Brexit.
Mr Stewart also attacked his rivals for making promises he said they could not deliver, including on tax cuts. But they returned fire, with Mr Gove pushing him on his plan for public services.
Mr Johnson apologised for the offence caused by his previous comments about Muslim women but insisted they had been unfairly “escalated”, while Mr Hunt defended saying he agreed with the “sentiment” of Donald Trump's tweets about Sadiq Khan.
The debate followed the second round of voting by Tory MPs, which resulted in Dominic Raab being eliminated after failing to meet the threshold of 33 votes. Mr Johnson maintained a huge lead and Mr Stewart also increased his support, but Mr Javid only narrowly scraped through to Wednesday's third round.
See how the day unfolded below:
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The battle to win the support of Dominic Raab's backers begins now - and Sajid Javid is first out the block, tweeting:
The home secretary also seems to have no intention of withdrawing from the race, adding:
More reaction to tonight's vote, this time from Michael Gove, who came third...
One interesting takeaway from today's vote is the fact that Boris Johnson appeared to win only 13 of the 50 votes on offer from MPs who has backed eliminated candidates in the last round. Many expected that figure to be much higher. The fact it is not has fuelled speculation that Team Johnson may have told some of his supporters to vote for Sajid Javid, in an attempt to keep the home secretary in the contest at the expense of Rory Stewart.
It seems likely to either Mr Javid or Mr Stewart will be eliminated in tomorrow's vote. Could Mr Johnson's camp ask some of their supportive MPs to vote for Mr Javid, hoping that will allow him to overtake Mr Stewart, who has been the most vocal in attacking the former foreign secretary? We may never know, but tomorrow's vote will be fascinating.
Sajid Javid has tweeted this video ahead of tonight's live debate, which gets underway at 8pm...
Arriving at the BBC for tonight's debate, Rory Stewart tells reporters:
"There's a long way to go. I'm still very much the underdog in this race.''
Dominic Raab has just posted this after being eliminated from the Tory leadership contest today...
Sajid Javid's team are dismissing speculation that their candidate only scraped through to the next round thanks to votes 'leant' to him by Boris Johnson...
Hardline Brexiteer Andrea Jenykns becomes the first of Dominic Raab's supporters to announce that she will now back Boris Johnson...
We're ten minutes away from the live BBC hustings, where Boris Johnson will go head-to-head with the other candidates for the first time.
Arriving at the studio, Rory Stewart promised to ask the current frontrunner "again and again": "How is he going to do it? How is he going to deliver Brexit?''
It's going to be interesting...
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