Tory leadership candidates warmed up for a television clash on Sunday night by trading personal attacks in an increasingly toxic battle to succeed Boris Johnson.
Frontrunner Penny Mordaunt lashed out at “smears” against her in the race to be the next Prime Minister as Kemi Badenoch’s campaign stepped up their attacks over her position and record on transgender rights.
Mordaunt faced questions over her stance on trans rights after a leaked document suggested that, while Equalities Minister, she backed removing at least one element of the medical process for trans people to legally transition.
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But Mordaunt claimed she was the victim of smears as allies of right-winger Liz Truss try to keep her off the final ballot.
The Trade Minister hit out at the “toxic politics” of the campaign after claiming she did not change policy as her opponents portray.
She said: “There’s a number of smears going on in the papers. That’s not representative of how my party operates.
“My colleagues are very angry and upset that this is how the leadership contest is being dragged down.”
Ahead of the head to head debate on ITV at 7pm the latest polling for Conservative Home for Tory members showed former Chancellor Rishi Sunak was now ahead of Penny Mordaunt in the leadership race but that Liz Truss would beat them both in a run-off vote.
Although Sunak has more MPs backing him very survey suggests he will lose to whoever faces him in the final round so has a big challenge in the debate as he is seen as a tax-raising moderate by members.
The debate is a make or break moment for Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. She came across as surly and uncertain in the first debate, and it may be that some of her supporters move to Sunak in an effort to stop Penny Mordaunt.
Both Mordaunt and Badenoch are seen as insurgents with nothing to lose in the fight and everything to gain with a polished camera performance.
Tom Tugendhat, the flagbearer for One Nation Tories, put a distance between himself and the previous administration on Sunday by saying Boris Johnson’s account of partygate was “more fictional than reality”.
The leadership hopeful skewered the Prime Minister over his account of the scandal that led to the downfall of his administration.
However, he dodged a question about whether he would serve in the cabinet of a prime minister who had broken the law.
More heat than light is expected from the debate with the candidates being light on policy so far.
Every candidate so far has refused to back the idea of a second Scottish independence referendum but has had little to say on what their alternative vision of a United Kingdom is other than saying no to the SNP demand.
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