Tory leadership race - live: Mordaunt criticised for supporting homeopathy on NHS

Rishi Sunak’s rivals are getting away with incredible tax-and-spend plans, writes John Rentoul.

They say a week is a long time in politics.

It certainly must have felt that way for Rishi Sunak this week. The frontrunner to be the next prime minister had had an understandably busy few days before he stood before Tory MPs in a quiet committee room off a Westminster corridor on Tuesday night.

But, for a moment, he appeared to forget that he was no longer the chancellor, referring in passing to his “department”. And yet it was his decision to resign as chancellor a week before that kicked off a series of events that saw Boris Johnson ousted from power and left Mr Sunak in pole position to replace him.

To be fair to Mr Sunak, the race to become the next Conservative leader was also accompanied by temperatures rarely seen in Westminster, writes our Whitehall Editor Kate Devlin.

On Monday, a student on work experience fainted in the basement of the Churchill War Rooms museum, listening to cabinet minister Nadhim Zahawi set out his pitch to become the next prime minister. Over the next few days, Mr Zahawi and a number of his rivals would also fall like flies.

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s politics coverage, with the latest news and analysis from the heart of Westminster.

Last night the five Tory leadership hopefuls went head-to-head in the first televised debate and the candidates clashed on a number of issues, including taxes and trans rights.

A snap poll straight away the debate showed that Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat won the debate and foreign secretary Liz Truss performed the worst.

Liz Truss’s “implosion” in tonight’s could significantly “move the dial” on the leadership race, an expert in political forecasting has suggested.

Professor Leighton Vaughan Williams, who heads Nottingham Business School’s political forecasting unit, tweeted: “If she survives this, let’s just call off debates in future.”

In his latest column, our associate editor Sean O’Grady says that there’s “no doubt who lost” tonight’s leadership debate. He writes:

“The Apprentice episode from hell couldn’t finish soon enough for her. Good team leader? Not poor old Liz Truss on Team Blue Horizon. Or Liz “trussed up and handed her sorry ass on a plate by Rishi Sunak”, as things turned out.

“So wooden she should have been sponsored by Cuprinol, the foreign secretary never actually evinced a groan from the audience (although they may well have been dying inside, the same as she was), but she certainly didn’t get them pumped up either. An indifferent public speaker at the best of times, she’s sadly just as bad as she was when she did that YouTube favourite, the “disgraceful cheese” speech a few years back.

“Boris Johnson must be fuming. This is supposed to be his secret wonder weapon, his “Stop Sunak” candidate, and he chose badly, as so often. Truss is a politician so frightened by a camera and a live audience of actual floating voters that she can’t even get herself pumped up. Maybe she’s a great laugh in private over a few drinks, and compelling in cabinet committees, but she’s a dud on the telly.”

You can read his analysis in full here:

It almost appears as though Ms Truss’s campaign team were seeking to run damage control before the debate was over.

An unfortunately-timed tweet sent out from her official Twitter account reading: “It’s only by walking the walk – not talking the talk – that we really restore trust.”

Twitter users have been quick to spot Liz Truss seemingly recreating an outfit of Margaret Thatcher’s for her appearance at the debate.

The foreign secretary wore a black blazer and white shirt with a large bow for the event on Friday, matching exactly what the former Conservative prime minister wore in a 1979 election broadcast.

Here’s the verdict from The Independent’s associate editor, Sean O’Grady:

“As part of her perpetual makeover strategy, Truss has been photographed in some remarkable outfits in recent years: like a David Bowie tribute act from his Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) era; a peasant farmer in her orchard; and posing vice-regally in the splendour of the Foreign Office, antique globe placed as if in a portrait by Holbein.

“Now, though, with her target audience of Tory boomers, Liz had herself made up so that she resembled an animatronic waxwork Margaret Thatcher.

“There was the same blonde bouffant, the same blouse with giant pussy cat bow, the same Tory blue outfit, the same icy stare, the same humourless, deliberate delivery – all she needed was the handbag and some pits to close down.”

Sir Roger Gale, who is yet to publicly back any candidate, has given his verdict on tonight’s debate, claiming Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss “simply do not satisfy the ‘fresh start’ and integrity test”.

You can watch here as Tom Tugendhat accused Rishi Sunak of having privately told him that he only agreed to hike National Insurance – a measure intended to fund the NHS and social care – because Boris Johnson had told him to.

The debate saw various candidates clash over taxes, with ex-chancellor Mr Sunak accusing Ms Truss of touting economic “fairytales”, and striving to paint himself as a sole realist among the contenders, willing to take tough decisions such as hiking National Insurance to better fund the NHS and social care.

But this central pillar of Mr Sunak’s campaign risked being somewhat undermined after Mr Tugendhat’s claims, which appeared to leave Mr Sunak visibly shocked.

Mr Tugendhat appeared to be savvy to the advice of Albus Dumbledore, appearing to paraphrase the Harry Potter character as he said: “It’s easy to stand up to your enemies – it’s sometimes harder to stand up to your friends.”