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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Nicola Slawson and Andrew Sparrow

Tom Tugendhat out of Tory leadership race as Sunak still leads field – as it happened

​​Rishi Sunak Liz Truss Penny Mordaunt Kemi Badenoch

Evening summary

Here’s a round up of the key developments from today:

  • Tom Tugendhat has been knocked out of the Tory leadership race after only receiving 31 votes in the third round of the vote. The results for the other candidates are as follows: Kemi Badenoch received 58, Penny Mordaunt got 82, Rishi Sunak got 115 and Liz Truss received 71.
  • The government has won tonight’s vote of confidence with 349 in support. Meanwhile 248 MPs voted that they don’t have confidence in the government. This result was expected given had Conservative MPs voted that they had no confidence in the government, an early election would likely had to have been called.
  • Boris Johnson has defended his three years in power during a combative speech that hinted at a “deep state” plot to drag the UK back into the EU when he leaves office. He said some people think his departure will prove the end of Brexit. He urges his party to prove them wrong.
  • Although Keir Starmer’s speech was largely focused on Boris Johnson, as well as attacking the prime minister, he also attacked the Conservatives for electing him in the first place, and for sustaining him in office for so long. Labour fears that, once Johnson leaves, the Conservatives will recover some of their popularity. For Starmer it is important to ensure that opprobrium attached to Johnson sticks to the Tories too
  • Sky News announced it cancelled the Tory leadership debate planned for tomorrow night after Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss said they would not take part. Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party, Sky News said.
  • The government’s emergency committee, Cobra, has been meeting to discuss how to handle the heatwave, but Boris Johnson has not been chairing those meetings himself. At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended his decision to leave it to a junior colleague.
  • One of the biggest shocks of the day was Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, firmly, for the first time, committing to the UKs climate commitments and saying she would not row back on net zero. She previously disparaged the target, causing alarm among green Tories.
  • Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has written to Nadhim Zahawi, challenging him to provide more clarity about his tax and financial affairs.
  • On Wednesday next week Guardian Live is hosting a discussion on who will be the next Conservative leader. The panel includes my colleagues Jonathan Freedland and John Crace, and Salma Shah, a former special adviser to Sajid Javid. Full details of the event, and how to get tickets, are available here.

We are closing this liveblog now. Thanks so much for joining us.

Our liveblog on the Ukraine-Russia conflict is still live. You can follow along here:

Updated

The government wins confidence vote

The government has won tonight’s vote of confidence with 349 in support.

Meanwhile 248 MPs voted that they don’t have confidence in the government.

This result was expected given had Conservative MPs voted that they had no confidence in the government, an early election would likely had to have been called.

Updated

Supporters of Liz Truss have said her key rival, Penny Mordaunt, has “topped out” of backers, as the foreign secretary gained ground in the fight for second place in the Conservative leadership contest.

Mordaunt lost a vote in the latest ballot of Tory MPs’ – a key sign her campaign had stalled after a weekend of bruising attacks – but remained behind frontrunner Rishi Sunak.

But the pressure is still on Truss, who gained just seven MP backers, less than the fourth-placed Kemi Badenoch, who received nine new supporters. Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, was knocked out of the race.

James Cleverly, the education secretary, said Truss had shown during the leadership debates that she was ready for the job. “This is about day one competence, she is showing she has always had the best depth and breadth of experience,” he added.

The remaining leadership hopefuls will now be hoping to pick off Tugendhat’s 31 supporters. A Truss backer said that Mordaunt’s support was strong, but they believed she and Badenoch would not ultimately be able to overcome their relative lack of experience to win the chance to face off with Sunak in the final two.

Read more from my colleagues Jessica Elgot, Aubrey Allegretti and Peter Walker here:

The MPs in the commons are now voting on the motion of confidence in the government.

It is expected that most Tory MPs will vote that they do have confidence in the government despite many of them resigning from government because they didn’t have confidence in Boris Johnson less than two weeks ago.

If they don’t, there would probably have to be an early general election, which the Conservatives do not want.

In a highly unusual move, No 10 actually called the vote of confidence in itself after it rejected a Labour motion that singled out Johnson.

More on how the vote came about can be found here:

Updated

Fascism does not always “arrive wearing jackboots”, but can come “more subtly”, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has said during the Vote of Confidence debate.

The MP told the commons:

It would be easy to dismiss this government as simply the incompetents that they are. But that would be wrong because the popular style of politics they’ve inflicted on this country is deeply dangerous.

The risk of a frightening descent into what the honourable member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Mhairi Black) bravely and correctly called out in May: fascism. As she said back then, fascism doesn’t always arrive wearing jackboots, it can come knocking more subtly than that.

Well, students of fascism have helpfully suggested some of its signs: disinformation, misogyny, disdain for intellectuals, social conformity, suppression of trade unions, threats to human rights, the creation and abuse of hate groups, the rise of militarisation and, of course, racism, which is at the heart of fascism.

Do any of these sounds familiar? There is a pattern here, if only we are prepared to see it. We like to tell ourselves that we live in a mature democracy. Yet this populist government has deliberately set out to weaken the very institutions that define a liberal democracy.

Penny Mordaunt, who came second in the vote but lost one of her votes, said:

My vote is steady and I’m grateful to my colleagues for all their support and thrilled to be in second place once more.

MPs know that I’m a strong candidate, running a truly clean campaign and putting forward a positive vision for the party and our country.

Mordaunt, who will be hoping to benefit from Tom Tugendhat being eliminated said he was a friend and colleague who she has admired for years and said:

I know that we are both committed to a clean start for our party and I believe he is one of the strongest assets on the Conservative green benches.

It was an honour to stand alongside him in this contest.

Following the results of tonight’s Tory leadership vote, Kemi Badenoch tweeted that it was “all to play for” and that she was “in it to win”.

She said:

Continued momentum, closing the gap, I am the only change candidate left in the race.

A source for Badenoch’s campaign, meanwhile, told the PA news agency:

Kemi is pleased to have taken it to the next vote. She has momentum over both Mordaunt and Truss. It’s all to play for and Kemi is in it to win.

She wants to deliver change and is the only candidate in the race capable of delivering it.

Updated

A source for Rishi Sunak’s campaign said the former chancellor had achieved a “good result” in the latest leadership ballot.

They told the PA news agency:

A good result for Rishi after two TV debates and a consistent and sensible message.

MPs are recognising that Rishi has the best experience and plans to deal with the current economic situation. Rishi will rebuild our economy by gripping inflation and getting our economy growing quickly again.

Full report: Tom Tugendhat knocked out as Tory leadership race goes down to final four

Tom Tugendhat has been knocked out of the race to become Britain’s next prime minister, with four candidates left in the Conservative leadership race.

Rishi Sunak remains the frontrunner, with two more votes due to be held by Tory MPs on Tuesday and Wednesday this week to decide the final two candidates.

Sunak gained 14 supporters from the last ballot to put him on a total of 115, trailed by Penny Mordaunt, who lost one, giving her 82.

Liz Truss remained in third place, picking up seven supporters to put her on 71, while Kemi Badenoch came fourth with an extra nine supporters, giving her 58.

Tugendhat’s allies had been expecting him to poll last in the vote, briefing hours before that it was “ours to lose”.

They said they were unlikely to have inherited many supporters from the previous candidate to be knocked out, Suella Braverman.

Though Sunak retained his lead, those MPs who backed Tugendhat and were urged by the former chancellor’s team to back him instead, expressed surprise that he was still scrambling to shore up supporters given he seemed all but certain to make the final two.

As the race narrowed further, wavering MPs said the final few rounds were likely to be dictated by the fight between the “Anyone but Sunak” and “Anyone but Truss” factions in a bid to keep one of them out of the final two.

Read more here:

After his elimination from the Tory leadership contest, Tom Tugendhat said he will listen to what other candidates have to say before deciding who to support.

In a video posted to Twitter, Tugendhat said:

We fought for a clean start because we know that that’s what the country is crying out for.

We’ve seen that in the response to the two debates, we’ve seen that in the engagement we’ve had from people.

Now I’m going to be with you, of course, over the next two years, fighting in the council elections and then fighting again in the general election and then long into the future, because we need to make sure that our party, the Conservative Party, is able to deliver a clean start for the country and for ourselves.

But please, I’m not going to be talking about any candidates at the moment, I’ll listen to what they have to say and I’ll be making my judgment later.

Tom Tugendhat, who has become the latest candidate to be eliminated from the Tory leadership contest, tweeted that he was “immensely proud of the positive vision” he and his team put forward during the campaign.

Here’s a breakdown of the losses and gains during that vote.

Rishi Sunak gained 14 votes while Kemi Badenoch gained nine and Liz Truss gained seven. Meanwhile, Penny Mordaunt and Tom Tugendhat both dropped a vote.

Sunak is only five votes off of a guaranteed place in the postal vote to the wider Conservative party.

Truss will be disappointed to have only taken seven of Suella Braverman’s votes – especially as Braverman publicly backed Truss after being eliminated– while Badenoch will be pleased to be gaining on her rival on the right.

Mordaunt will also be very disappointed that her momentum has stalled.

Tom Tugendhat out of the race as Sunak still leads field

Tom Tugendhat has been knocked out of the Tory leadership race after only receiving 31 votes in the third round of the vote.

Graham Brady said 357 votes were cast in the third round of the vote.

The results for the other candidates are as follows: Kemi Badenoch received 58, Penny Mordaunt got 82, Rishi Sunak got 115 and Liz Truss received 71.

Updated

The results of the third round of the leadership ballot is about to be announced. You can watch the livestream of the results above.

It’s widely predicated that Tom Tugendhat will be knocked out during this round and may already have lost votes to Penny Mordaunt during this vote.

Rishi Sunak is not expecting to make much of a gain from the last vote but Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch will be hoping for some momentum as they will be hoping to pick up votes from Suella Braverman.

Sally-Ann Hart, Conservative MP for Hastings and Rye, said Labour was panicking at the idea of a new Conservative leader.

She said:

With this prime minister gone, what will the opposition do? We can feel their panic from across the floor: their hate fuelled moralistic posturing has made them all vulnerable.

On this side of the house we keep calm and carry on.

Updated

Labour MP Jess Philips made a good point during her speech:

She said:

It is unusual being sat here listening to all this praise for their prime minister when they’ve just got rid of him.

She went on to speak passionately about the government’s record on handling sexual assault and harassment allegations.

She said:

When the Labour party was having a leadership election a contest every candidate was rightly asked what they would to deal with anti-semitism…I’d like to know what Rishi Sunak did when Chris Pincher was appointed deputy chief whip. What Liz Truss did?

I want to know what all the candidates did. And I want to know what the Conservative party is going to do to deal with its institutional inability to deal with complaints about sexual harassment.

Updated

A Tory MP was told he should be ashamed of the government’s record on LGBT rights during the vote of confidence debate in the Commons – which led to a heated exchange across the Commons chamber.

In his speech, Chris Bryant told the Commons:

No I don’t have confidence in this government because they are obsessed with all the wrong things. They spend more time and energy protecting statues than protecting women from domestic abuse.

They deliberately drive wedges between people over gender identity and trans rights and ignore the fact that their own equalities minister resigned because he thought the Government was creating a hostile environment for LGBT people.

Bryant then pointed at Tory MP Chris Clarkson, who had just finished a speech giving his backing to the government and who is gay, and said:

Which is why he should be ashamed to defend this government.

Raising a point of order, Clarkson asked whether pointing at him was in order, but Deputy Speaker Dame Rosie Winterton said it would have been “appropriate” for the Conservative MP to try to intervene in Bryant’s speech instead.

Bryant and Clarkson could later be seen speaking to each other in angry but hushed tones across the Commons chamber, each telling the other they should be ashamed.

Updated

Labour MP Diana Johnson has tweeted to say the vote of confidence debate is “one of the nastiest” she has ever experienced.

SNP MP Stewart McDonald told the Commons:

We don’t have a government, it’s a government in name only, it’s essentially now a form of organised Tory hooliganism that squats in these offices of state, that squats in these departments and squats most of all in Downing Street.

Earlier, Conservative MP Sir Bill Cash shouted “don’t you dare speak like that” after an apparent heckle in response to him raising Johnson’s experiences with Covid.

He told the Commons:

On the handling of Covid, from which he nearly died himself, and despite which – don’t you dare speak like that – with courage and resilience he battled through.

It was not clear in the chamber what was shouted from the opposition benches, with Cash opting to continue his speech in defence of Johnson.

In case you missed this little gem earlier, here’s a clip of the moment Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had to remind the prime minister who put forward the debate today:

Updated

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said Boris Johnson “has debased the high office of the British prime minister” and “shattered the public’s trust in our politics”.

He added:

This government has plunged our country, our great country, into three serious crises: the cost-of-living crisis, the healthcare crisis and a political crisis.

It’s shockingly evident that the Conservative party opposite is totally out of touch with the financial and healthcare catastrophes facing millions of British families and pensioners later this year.

In the “so-called” debates between the Conservative leadership candidates, he said “there’s this massive elephant in the room called the energy bill catastrophe”.

He argued:

He (Mr Johnson) has debased the high office of the British prime minister and he has shattered the public’s trust in our politics, but he didn’t act alone. For three years, those on the benches opposite have backed him to the hilt ... Conservative MPs defended the indefensible and excused the inexcusable.

Updated

Conservative Sir Bill Wiggin told the Commons the country was “losing a political communicator and leader of historic proportions”.

He said:

At every opportunity the prime minister has shown contrition and a desire to get on with a Conservative agenda. However, the mud slinging and the relentless nature of politics and the media eventually take its toll on even the steeliest character.

The Labour Party and some in the media are glad to see the prime minister go as we are losing a political communicator and leader of historic proportions.

On “reach and the likability”, Johnson he said “remains one of the rare politicians who’s on first name terms with the public”, adding: “This reflects a rapport with the public which is frankly astonishing (given) the extent of smears from all corners of society.”

The prime minister he said “remains immensely popular across the country”, adding:

He loves his children, he is caring.”

He added: “It is going to be a great shame that he is going when he has done so much for the free people of Ukraine ... he is right to leave with his head held high.

Updated

Labour former minister Dame Margaret Hodge said:

This debate is essential to call a halt to the dangerous Trumpian assault on everything we value in our British democracy.

The MP for Barking accused the government of having “a creeping culture of corruption” and a “determination to close down those whose job it is to keep a check on executive power”, saying that is what “makes this government unfit for office”.

Updated

The only “fresh start” that will work is a general election, Ian Blackford said.

The SNP Westminster leader told MPs:

Today proves they [the Tories] are staying with him still.

Their failure to get rid of the prime minister means that we now finally need to get rid of the lot of them because today proves another thing: the only fresh start we need, the only fresh start that will work, is a general election.

An election that will offer the people of Scotland the chance and the choice of an independent future.

The need to put an end to this Tory government is underlined by the terrifying spectacle of the leadership race that is under way throughout this building. Because no sooner had the race begun, and it became very clear that it wasn’t just a race to get into Downing Street, it was a race to the toxic right.

Updated

A senior source on Tom Tugendhat’s campaign admitted in the hours before the vote he was “in it to lose it” and likely to lose supporters, as his coming bottom of the poll appeared inevitable.

They said pulling out would have been a betrayal of Tugendhat’s pledge to fight to the end, and have then placed the remaining four candidates under much more pressure, given the person placed lowest would face a shock ejection.

Tugendhat’s allies also said he “did the party some good” by being more vocally critical of Boris Johnson than the other candidates in recent TV debates.

Monday was described as “a phoney war” for Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt as they all turned attention away from fighting for survival and instead to the final two ballots of Tory MPs.

As the race narrowed, MPs said that Badenoch and Mordaunt were most likely to benefit from a tussle between the factions trying to keep Sunak and Truss from making the final two.

Though Sunak retained a relatively comfortable position as frontrunner, his team were still said to be furiously ringing around wavering MPs.

One Tugendhat supporter who said they were likely to support Truss after Monday’s vote:

I don’t think he’s going to have that massive majority where he can go to the country and be the dominating candidate.

That’s going to undermine his position, because as a former chancellor, for him to go on level pegging, that’s damning.

Another Tugendhat backer said:

Rishi’s people are worried. They should be clear, they shouldn’t be worried about MP numbers but they are trying to grab us quite hard. Should be shaping who he’s against rather than bolstering his own numbers.

Sir Edward Leigh is talking about his loyalty to Boris Johnson and says he has remained loyal to him just as he remained loyal to Margaret Thatcher.

On Sir Keir Starmer’s speech, he said:

In terms of vituperation and insult and sheer nastiness, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it before. Certainly to a PM leaving office in just a few weeks. Where is any sense of kindness? Or magnanimity?

Johnson is not “the worst sort of mass murderer and criminal in political history”, he says, in an apparent attempt to pay the prime minister a compliment.

Updated

Boris Johnson told the Commons that the Tory party won’t allow the UK to be hauled back into the EU after he leaves office:

Some people will say as I leave office that this is the end of Brexit, oh yes, and the leader of the opposition and the deep state will prevail in its plot to haul us back into alignment with the EU as a prelude to our eventual return, and we on this side of the House will prove them wrong, won’t we?

Tory MPs cheered in response, with the prime minister adding to quizzical heckles:

Some people will say that this is the end of our support for Ukraine.

I have no doubt that whoever takes over in a few weeks’ time will make sure we keep together the global coalition in support of our Ukrainian friends.

He added he believes Tory MPs will prove Sir Keir Starmer “totally wrong” over the prospect of a Labour election triumph, adding they will send the opposition leader “into orbit”.

Addressing SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, he added:

It is time that he takes his protein pill and puts his helmet on because it won’t be long, I hear, before his own party is taking him to Shetland and propelling him to the heavens.

Starmer attacks Tories for electing Johnson in first place, and then keeping him in office

Although Keir Starmer’s speech was largely focused on Boris Johnson, as well as attacking the prime minister, he also attacked the Conservatives for electing him in the first place, and for sustaining him in office for so long.

Labour fears that, once Johnson leaves, the Conservatives will recover some of their popularity. For Starmer it is important to ensure that opprobrium attached to Johnson sticks to the Tories too, and that is what he was trying to do with this speech. Here is an extract.

Despite knowing exactly who he is, despite knowing that he always put himself before anyone else, despite knowing he’d been fired from job after job for lying, they elected him to lead their party.

And he behaved exactly as everyone feared when he got into Downing Street.

He lurched from one scandal to the next.

He demeaned his office.

And he started to drag everyone and everything down with him.

So belatedly, they found him unfit for office.

Too untrustworthy for government.

So, why are they leaving him with his hands on the levers of power for eight weeks?

Eight weeks where the British public must trust the word of a prime minister who has been sacked because he can’t be trusted.

Eight weeks where Britain will be represented abroad by someone who has lost all respect at home.

Eight weeks of a caretaker government led be an utterly careless prime minister ...

This is not the summer for Downing Street to be occupied by a vengeful squatter, mired in scandal.

Every day they leave him there, every hustings they refuse to distance themselves from his appalling behaviour and every vote they cast today to prop him up is a dereliction of duty.

That’s all from me for tonight. My colleague Nicola Slawson is taking over now.

Updated

Starmer says under his leadership Labour has changed.

He is ready to do the same for the country.

And Labour will have to clean up politics too, he says.

He urges MPs to make a start by voting no confidence in the government.

Starmer condemns Johnson for promoting a known sexual predator.

He criticises him for making Nadhim Zahawi chancellor when he has questions to answer about tax avoidance.

And he recalls what Rishi Sunak said in his resignation letter. Sunak said Johnson would not work hard, and would not tell the truth. Johnson demeaned his office and dragged everyone down with him, Starmer says.

Richard Holden (Con) intervenes. He claims Starmer could be describing his own situation, because Starmer did nothing when Labour was judged to be breaking the law in its handling of antisemitism, he claims.

Starmer ignores the claim and carries on. He says Holden has forgotten why the debate is being held. It is because Johnson could not fill ministerial posts after so many ministers resigned.

Updated

Starmer accuses Johnson of 'delusion' and says he's been 'forced out in disgrace'

Keir Starmer starts his speech saying: “The delusion is never ending. What a relief for the country that they finally got round to sacking him.”

He says when David Cameron and Theresa May left office, it was over policy. No one dispute that they were fit for office.

As Tory MPs jeer, Starmer suggests some of them should reread their resignation letters.

Johnson has not been forced out by a stampeding herd, he says (a reference to Johnson’s resignation speech). Starmer goes on

He’s been forced out in disgrace, judged by his colleagues and peers to be unworthy of his position and unfit for office.

Updated

Johnson claims he 'got the big calls right' as he defends record of his government

Johnson says some people think his departure will prove the end of Brexit. He urges his party to prove them wrong.

And he says Keir Starmer thinks Johnson’s resignation will mean a Labour victory at the next election. Johnson says he thinks Starmer will proved wrong on that.

Summing up his record he says:

We’ve had to take some of the bleakest decisions since the war and I believe that we got the big calls right.

Johnson is now recalling his trip in an RAF Typhoon jet at the weekend. He recalls taking the controls. But he handed back the controls, he says.

He says he is doing the same with the Conservative party.

He is now using the passage about the “twin engines of this Conservative government” that he used in his Farnborough airshow speech this morning. (See 3.56pm.)

Updated

Boris Johnson entertained some of his supporters at Chequers at the weekend and, according to Emilio Casalicchio in his London Playbook briefing, he treated them to a tub-thumping speech. Casalicchio says:

It was classic BoJo: Relentless in its optimism and laced with gags. “It was the sort of speech you could have imagined him delivering in 2024 and getting a mandate from the country with,” the pal said. “It was almost as if he was convincing those die-hard loyalists in front of him that he’s still the best man for the job.” Another said the speech was “incredible” and contained lots of laughter and tears, with guests asking each other “what the hell” critics had done in bringing him down.

It sounds like the Chequers speech was a rehearsal for this one.

Updated

Labour’s Kevin Brennan says the country is supposed to operate on the good chaps theory of government. But Johnson has been a “bad apple”, he says.

Johnson does not engage with his argument. Instead he says:

I am proud of the way I have been able to offer leadership in difficult times.

This is from Labour’s Alex Cunningham on the opening of this debate.

And this is from Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, on one of the claims in Johnson’s speech.

Johnson accused of engaging in 'fantasy tour' as he defends his record in confidence debate

Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, intervenes, and thanks Johnson for “taking a break from his fantasy tour of this country”. He asks Johnson to explain:

Why 14 million people in this country are living in poverty? Why there are more food banks than there are branches of McDonald’s. Why there is a mental health crisis? Why big pharma have made so much out of owning the patents of the vaccines? Why his government is presiding over the enrichment of the richest, the impoverishment of the poorest and the greatest job insecurity in industry after industry?

Johnson says he does not accept Corbyn’s case. He says 14 million people voted for his government.

Updated

Johnson takes his first intevention from Michael Fabricant (Con), one of his most loyal supporters, who suggests the Conservative party are making the same mistake getting rid of Johnson that Labour made when it got rid of Tony Blair.

Johnson is speaking at accelerated pace, with huge gusto and little detail. It is like a Tory conference speech – a mixture of bravado, and greatest hits sloganising.

He started by saying when he became PM parliament was deadlocked. But he called an election and “we sent the great blue Tory ferret so far up their [Labour’s] trouser leg they couldn’t move”, he said.

Johnson was referring obliquely to a Fleet Street cliche.

Updated

Boris Johnson opens confidence debate

Boris Johnson is opening the debate on the confidence motion in the government.

He starts by complaining that MPs could be spending their time on something more useful.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, points out that it is the government that scheduled this debate, and tabled the motion.

Labour tried to have a no confidence debate last week, but the government refused it, on the grounds that the wording of the motion offered by Labour was unacceptable.

Voting has started in the third round of the Tory leadership contest. The ballot is open until 7pm.

Sir John Hayes, the Tory rightwinger and chair of the Common Sense Group, has switched from backing Suella Braverman, who was knocked out of the contest last week, to Kemi Badenoch, his local paper reports. Hayes told Spalding Today that Badenoch was “fresh-faced and brimming with ideas and ability”.

Braverman herself urged her supporters to back Liz Truss, who is seen as the rightwinger with the best chance of making it on to the final ballot.

In Tory terms, Truss and Badenoch are seen as the only authentic rightwingers left in the contest.

Updated

Here is my colleague Helena Horton’s story about the climate hustings for the Tory leadership candidates earlier.

And here is an extract.

Rebecca Pow, a former environment minister, was asking questions at the hustings. She said afterwards: “They all seem to ‘get it’, some have more knowledge than others but they all committed to current policies and I think they all came over very strongly.”

Pow is backing [Rishi] Sunak and said she felt his answers were the strongest: “He more than anyone understood about how you use land to increase biodiversity and reduce emissions, but they all made really good points, especially on things like energy efficiency.”

My colleague Martin Pengelly went to the same school in Leeds that Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, attended, and - like other people from the city - is furious about the way that she has presented it as a place that let down its pupils. He has written about it here.

Here’s an extract.

This week, introducing her proposed economic policy, Truss doubled down on Roundhay school, where she apparently saw “children who failed and were let down by low expectations”. Perhaps she did. But perhaps she would have seen children failing or being let down wherever she went to school: city or country, state or private, satisfactory or outstanding. Perhaps she is selectively deploying her upbringing, and casually traducing the school and teachers who nurtured her, for simple political gain.

I’m furious, obviously. So are other Roundhay alumni. Here are some of their thoughts. A friend in my year, who also went into politics, says: “It’s a nonsense. To the extent that we were ‘let down’ it was because we were being taught in a building in such a state of disrepair that you could put your fingers through the window frames. Funding, not low expectations, was the problem.”

“Truss is basically someone with a massive chip on her shoulder who can’t work out what tribe she’s in,” said another friend, from the year below me. “She used to describe herself as brought up in ‘Yorkshire’ (county fairs, moorland, Geoff Boycott), to curry favour with the rural upper-middle classes she wants to be part of in Norfolk. She now claims to be from a Ken Loach film, T’Red Wall, in the hope that the 2019 intake of Conservative MPs will like her, or more importantly for her, accept her.”

Peter Apps, deputy editor of Inside Housing, has posted a good thread on Twitter about the housing policies of the Tory leadership candidates. He is scathing about all of them. The thread starts here.

And here are his conclusions.

Here is the Green party MP Caroline Lucas posing her urgent question on the heatwave.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, pitched her “heavyweight credentials on the economy” at the 1922 Committee hustings, PA Media reports. A source from her campaign told PA:

Liz made her pitch about her heavyweight credentials on the economy and her track record in delivering Brexit opportunities.

The next election will be about the cost of living and Liz is the only candidate with the plan and experience to deliver a proper Conservative economic agenda.

In the Commons Kit Malthouse, the Cabinet Office minister and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, is answering an urgent question from the Green MP Caroline Lucas on the heatwave. My colleague Rachel Hall is covering it on the heatwave live blog.

At the start of the session the Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, said he was surprised the government had not scheduled a full Commons statement on the emergency, given that it was so serious.

In a speech at the Farnborough Air Show this morning Boris Johnson claimed that he would leave office with public services and the free market economy in good shape. He said:

I am now going to hand over the controls seamlessly to someone else.

I don’t know who, but whoever it is, I can tell you this, I can reassure you of this, that the great Rolls-Royce twin engines of this Conservative government will roar on. Fantastic public services. A dynamic free market economy. Each boosting the other and developing, what’s the word I want, millions of tonnes of trust.

In his speech Johnson also turned to poetry as he described his outing in an RAF Typhoon at the weekend (a trip that No 10 sought to justify on the grounds that it was some sort of fact-finding enterprise - see 12.39am). Johnson said:

With the help of wing commander Paul Hanson I took off from RAF Coningsby straight up like a vertical firecracker.

We slipped the surly bonds of earth, as the poet Magee puts it, and danced the skies on laughter silvered wings.

This is from the FT’s Stephen Bush on the PM’s flight.

Updated

An MP supporting Rishi Sunak said “today is going to be quite a tough day for us” over the leadership ballot, PA Media reports. PA says they said Sunak gave a “colleague-focused pitch on campaigning” in the 1922 Committee hustings. The MP said candidates are being asked a variety of questions in the hustings, including on bringing the party together after the leadership election.

The MP told reporters:

Today is going to be quite a tough day for us in terms of the ballot, because if you look at the free votes sort of floating around from the candidate that got knocked out last week [Suella Braverman], I think it’s probably fair to say that we’re not going to pick up very many of those, I suspect.

So assuming everybody else votes for who they voted for ... I wouldn’t expect our vote to massively increase today.

Tugendhat tells Tory MPs he expects to drop out of leadership contest after tonight's vote

Tom Tugendhat, the Tory leadership candidate, told Tory MPs during his hustings appearance that he knew he would be forced out of the contest tonight. The person who comes last in each vote drops out, Tugendhat was second last in the last ballot and he has almost no chance of picking up votes from the previous candidate to drop out, Suella Braverman, whose supporters were hardline Brexiters. Tugendhat voted remain.

These are from my colleague Jessica Elgot.

And this is from the Sun’s Harry Cole.

The Conservative 1922 Committee has been holding a private hustings for the Tory leadership candidates, who have been questioned by their colleagues one by one. PA Media has been speaking to candidates on their way out.

Asked how it went, Penny Mordaunt told reporters: “All very good, all very jolly.”

Banging on tables could be heard just before Rishi Sunak left the 1922 Committee hustings. Asked how it went, the Tory leadership frontrunner told reporters: “All good, enjoying it.”

Kemi Badenoch said the 1922 Committee hustings went well. Asked if she was feeling confident as she left, she told reporters: “Yes, always.”

And Tom Tugendhat said his appearance went well as he left, Sky’s Jon Craig reports.

Penny Mordaunt has Irish Catholic roots, it has emerged, but her staunch support for Brexit makes her an outlier not just among many of those with Irish heritage but among her extended family. My colleagues Lisa O’Carroll and Jessica Elgot have the story here.

Boris Johnson visiting Farnborough International Airshow this morning.
Boris Johnson visiting Farnborough International Airshow this morning. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

Badenoch joins other leadership candidates in committing to net zero at climate crisis hustings

Forty Conservative MPs turned up in the end to ask the leadership contenders about the environment at the climate hustings.

The big shock of the day was Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, firmly, for the first time, committing to the UKs climate commitments and saying she would not row back on net zero. She previously disparaged the target, causing alarm among green Tories.

Chris Skidmore, chair of the environment all-party parliamentary group and organiser of the hustings, said:

For most people watching this debate they were terrified that someone would think they have a mandate to unpick our climate commitments. Alok [Sharma, the Cop26 president and chair of the hustings] was quite tough and made sure that they all got on the record supporting net zero and our climate commitments. Now all five have.

Many green MPs are concerned that biodiversity hasn’t really been mentioned during the contest, and they are worried that a new prime minister wouldn’t be as keen as Boris Johnson would have been on attending the Cop15 biodiversity conference later this year.

Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, according to peers and MPs present, dodged the question about whether he’d attend the conference in Montreal, Canada, in December. He said it was “very important” but did not commit to attending.

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, gave the strongest response according to the audience, telling them that not only would she attend, she’d lead a delegation and lead Britain on the world stage.

Sunak surprised those present in an otherwise rather finance and tech heavy speech by saying that peat restoration is his “pet project” and is the equivalent of Britain’s rainforest. He vowed to protect it as prime minister.

Updated

Major Tory donor delivers withering assessment of all leadership candidates - apart from 'top class' Badenoch

John Armitage, a hedge fund billionaire who has given more than £3m to the Conservative party in the past, delivered a withering assessment of the state of the party in an interview with Radio 4’s World at One. He was also scathing about all but one of the leadership candidates. Here are his quotes

On the Conservative party generally

In the Westminster bubble most MPs and most commentators don’t really realise what deep shit the Conservatives are in. I think people in the country are a) fed up with a regime that tolerated a dishonourable and bad prime minister for a long time; b) Brexit has actually happened and the debate has moved on to doing something about it and making it good; c) I think most people are fed up with what I would call boosterism, or you could call it policy by press release, where nothing happens.

If the Conservatives get a leader who will actually do something, and isn’t guided by opinion polls above all, yes, it might make a difference.

On the leadership candidates generally (apart from Rishi Sunak, who is opposed to immediate tax cuts)

I profoundly disagree with the idea that it’s Thatcherite to cut cut taxes when there’s a massive deficit and when our debt’s never been higher. I really don’t think that’s what Mrs Thatcher would have done.

On Liz Truss

I don’t like having foreign ministers who go in furs in tanks astride the world stage, looking like Mrs Thatcher.

On Sunak

It would worry me having a leader whose wife has been a non-dom ... The danger is that anytime Rishi Sunak takes a hard economic decision, or any time his chancellor [does], what will get flung back at him is, ‘It’s all very well for you’.

On Tom Tugendhat

I don’t like having MPs who say that we should have been enforced a no fly zone over Ukraine, ie put ourselves into conflict with Russia, which is Tom Tugendhat.

On Penny Mordaunt

Penny Mordaunt’s credo, which she is making much of at the moment, was delivered through a book published a few years ago which was written in conjunction with a leading PR executive. And PR executives are very good people. But they are all about presentation ... And I feel that that removes an element of genuineness.

And on Kemi Badenoch - the one candidate Armitage rates highly

I think Kemi Badenoch is really top class. I think she’s fresh, she’s different, she’s not associated with the old regime ... Kemi Badenoch gives me the impression that she is genuine.

Asked if he had donated to Badenoch’s campaign, Armitage said he hadn’t. He also thought people should not win the Tory leadership just by virtue of having a well-funded campaign.

John Armitage.
John Armitage. Photograph: Geoff Caddick/PA

Updated

Badenoch says government should be 'very careful' about how it seeks to meet net zero target

Kemi Badenoch, a former equalities minister, has drawn ire from the green wing of the party for her comments on net zero, arguing that green measures could be divisive and expensive.

Arriving for the climate crisis hustings, she told the Guardian:

If we are going to reach net zero we have to do it in the right way and bring people with us. We’ve set an aspiration to meet net zero by 2050 and we have to be very careful how we meet it.

When asked whether it could be more costly and expensive not to act, she said:

It could, but it could be even more expensive if we act but do it in the wrong way.

When asked what the “wrong way” could be, she replied: “Using technology that is not ready yet.”

Updated

In his speech to the private hustings for Tory leadership candidates on the climate crisis (see 1.06pm) Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, seemed to focus mostly on technological and industrial solutions to climate change, telling those assembled that “London leads the world in carbon trading” and pointing out that we are ahead of other countries when it comes to green tech.

He gave an optimistic vision for how we can reduce emissions while keeping a strong economy.

This is from Huw Merriman, the chair of the Commons transport committee, who was one of the Tory MPs attending.

In the Tory leadership debate last night Kemi Badenoch, the former equalities minister, claimed Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, did not take fraud in the Covid loan scheme seriously. Lord Agnew resigned as a Treasury minister over this issue.

Agnew told Times Radio this morning that he was “very, very surprised” by Sunak’s response to Badenoch, in which he suggested the problem was not as serious as implied. Agnew said:

I was very, very surprised by Mr Sunak’s response that he said that fraud was coming in lower than was anticipated, because that is not what I understand at all. However, we are completely in the dark because he ensured that no data was published.

So we actually don’t know what the figures are other than one parliamentary question, which was a written one, which was tabled a few weeks ago, which indicated that the fraud losses on the bounce back loans were running up to 20%, which is a horrific sum of money. So, a £47bn loan scheme, and the first indications are that 20% of the losses are arising from fraud, which is not what was suggested.

So I would challenge him to publish the data, because he stopped that from happening when he was there.

Tory leadership candidates to face questions from MPs at hustings on climate crisis

The Tory leadership candidates are taking part in a private hustings with Conservative MP on climate crisis issues. Chris Skidmore, who has organised the event along with the Conservative Environment Network, said he’s got a range of questions concerning everything from insulation of homes to Arctic ice. He told the Guardian:

We need to know what they are going to do to prioritise the cost of living crisis through green opportunities, to be able to lower bills.

Aside from Penny Mordaunt, who laid out a range of policy issues in the Guardian the other day, we are yet to hear from all the candidates [on green policy].

The sweltering committee room is an apt place to hold a hustings on the climate emergency. Skidmore said:

We’ve got the commitment on net zero by 2050, which is great. I think it was it really worrying and distressing at the beginning of the contest when it was the case that a candidate might decide that they have the mandate to unpick legislation and go against the UK’s national climate obligations and leadership.

But now I think we really need to understand, particularly on the hottest day of the year and potentially a record hottest day the UK has ever faced, what the candidates are going to do in order to deliver on climate change action, and also deliver now with a cost of living crisis that I think has to be done through not relying on fossil fuels and gas.

Skidmore said that while all the candidates talked about the supposed “cost” of net zero during Sunday night’s ITV debate, “that’s simply not true”. He explained:

Thirty years ago this heat was a once in 1,000 years event. Now there’s a one in four chance that we’d have temperatures like this by the time we get to 2050, and you know, our infrastructure is not resilient enough to cope with this.

We haven’t so far taken action to be able to deliver on reducing climate change and potentially lowering the number of extreme heat days for the future. And t we need to focus on better energy efficiency as insulation works both ways. It keeps homes warmer in the winter, but also keeps homes cooler in the summer.

Updated

Will Moy, the chief executive of the fact-checking organisation Full Fact, has criticised Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss for pulling out of the proposed Sky News debate, which has now been cancelled. He said:

Most of the leadership candidates were little known a week ago. Debates and interviews are an important way for the public to scrutinise our potential new prime minister and see if the candidates turn their promises of honesty into action.

A candidate who cannot campaign for the party leadership in the open with integrity should not be leading a general election campaign or the country. Trust cannot be earned behind closed doors.

Updated

Ladbrokes, the betting company, says there has been a significant increase in the number of people putting money on Liz Truss to win the Tory leadership contest since yesterday. It says it had Penny Mordaunt as favourite to win the contest on Saturday morning, but that Rishi Sunak is now favourite (on evens), followed by Truss (on odds of 2/1).

There will be an urgent question in the Commons on heatwave, tabled by the Green MP Caroline Lucas, and a statement from Stephen Barclay, the new health secretary, on pressures on the ambulance service.

That means Boris Johnson will not open the confidence debate until around 5.15pm.

No 10 defends Johnson's decision not to chair Cobra meetings on heatwave

The government’s emergency committee, Cobra, has been meeting to discuss how to handle the heatwave, but Boris Johnson has not been chairing those meetings himself. At the Downing Street lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson defended his decision to leave it to a junior colleague. Here is a summary of what No 10, on this story and on other matters.

  • Downing Street defended Johnson’s decision to let Kit Malthouse, the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, chair the Cobra meetings on the heatwave. The PM’s spokesperson said:

Kit Malthouse has made the point that he is taking the lead on the government’s response to the heatwave, he’s keeping the prime minister fully briefed including over the weekend when the prime minister also spoke to a number of secretaries of state about the work they are doing. And it is not unusual in cabinet government for cabinet ministers to chair these sorts of things.

Malthouse is due to chair another Cobra meeting on this at 2.30pm. The spokesperson would not say what Johnson would be doing while that meeting was taking place.

  • The spokesperson defended Johnson’s decision to take a flight in an RAF Typhoon jet at the weekend. Asked why this was necessary, the spokesperson said:

The Typhoon’s quick alert reaction role is an integral part of both UK and Nato security and the PM does have a specific role in directing RAF action in worst-case scenarios. So it is important he is aware of some of these capabilities they have.

Asked if Johnson needed first-hand experience to understand this, the spokesperson said: “It’s important that he has a detailed understanding of the working capabilities of the RAF.”

Boris Johnson in an RAF Typhoon fighter jet at the weekend.
Boris Johnson in an RAF Typhoon fighter jet at the weekend. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/No 10 Downing Street
  • Downing Street has defended the government’s economic strategy after Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, suggested it might lead to a recession. In last night’s debate Truss criticised Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, for raising taxes too much and said his policy was “cutting back on growth”. She went on:

It is preventing companies from investing and it’s taking money out of people’s pockets. That is no way to get the economy going during a recession.

Asked to respond, the PM’s spokesperson said:

The government’s position has been well established and talked about.

We believe we need to strike the right balance between servicing significant debt, which is running at £83bn, and also taking action to mitigate these global cost-of-living pressures, that’s what we’re doing and that’s where the Treasury’s focus is.

  • The spokesperson said a “range of measures” were in place to cope with the impact of the heat. There is much more coverage of this on our separate heatwave blog.

Updated

Keir Starmer also told reporters this morning that it would be “farcical” for Tory MPs to pass a confidence motion in Boris Johnson this evening (see 12pm) when all five of the leadership candidates in last night’s TV debate ruled out offering Johnson a job in cabinet. Starmer said:

The prime minister has put down this vote of confidence in himself and his government.

We’ve got this extraordinary situation. In the debate last night, I think all of the candidates to be prime minister [were asked] ‘would you have the current prime minister in your cabinet?’ And none of them said they would.

Tonight he’s asking them to go into voting lobbies to vote confidence in him continuing as prime minister so this is getting farcical.

Updated

Starmer says pulling out of TV debate when you want to be PM 'doesn't show much confidence'

Keir Starmer has said that he is “astonished” that Tory leadership candidates are avoiding the scrutiny of a TV debate. He said:

I’m astonished that those that want to be prime minister of the United Kingdom are pulling out of debates and out of scrutiny. I can see based on what I’ve seen in the debates so far why they want to do so because this is a party that is out of ideas, out of purpose, they’re tearing each other apart ...

Pulling out of a TV debate when you want to be prime minister doesn’t show very much confidence.

Keir Starmer with Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest Group, on a visit to the bank’s London HQ this morning.
Keir Starmer with Alison Rose, chief executive of NatWest Group, on a visit to the bank’s London HQ this morning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The Penny Mordaunt campaign has said a statement on the cancellation of the Sky News debate released earlier, which blamed Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss for not being able to debate each other “in a civil way” (see 11.13am), was sent out in error. It has retracted that statement, and instead issued this comment which does not not criticise her rivals. A campaign spokesperson said:

Media scrutiny is important in this contest. Penny has done broadcast and allowed time for journalists to ask questions at her launch. MPs aren’t just picking a new leader, but picking the nation’s new PM. Penny hopes there will be ample opportunity for such scrutiny later in the contest in a format that allows detailed questions and insights.

Updated

Here is a question from below the line.

The motion for the debate this afternoon, which has been tabled by the government, says: “That this house has confidence in Her Majesty’s government.”

Labour could choose to table an amendment to the motion, but it has decided not to. A party source says that is because the party does not have confidence in the government and will be voting against. “Rather than getting lost in procedural points, we’re focused on how this government has failed the country and will vote against the confidence motion,” the source said.

Originally Labour wanted a no confidence debate on a motion that linked having no confidence in the government to Boris Johnson being PM. Its proposed wording was: “That this house has no confidence in Her Majesty’s government while the Rt Hon Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip [Boris Johnson] remains prime minister.” But the government said it would not schedule a debate on this motion, even though no confidence motions tabled by the official opposition are always meant to get priority, on the grounds that the wording was unconventional and that Johnson’s decision to resign made that aspect of the motion irrelevant.

The Liberal Democrats have tabled an amendment to the motion being debated today which says the Commons “has no confidence in Her Majesty’s government and in the prime minister, and demands that the prime minister resign from office immediately.” But that is unlikely to be selected by the Speaker to be put to a vote.

Updated

Conservative MPs have been expressing their alarm in private WhatsApp groups about the damage the TV leadership debates have been doing to the party’s reputation, ITV’s Anushka Asthana reports. In her story she says:

In messages seen by ITV News, one MP warned: “The division, smears and personal attacks this weekend have been disgraceful. Nothing will kill our party more than blue on blue.”

Another wrote: “We have an 80-seat majority and have spent time in-fighting and bringing down the party and are now fighting publicly. It’s shameful. I can’t believe this is happening.”

One MP told ITV news that it was more “sorry than anger” in terms of the mood, but admitted: “It’s hard to see how people partner up when they go so hard at each other.”

Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says the refusal of Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to attend a TV leadership contest debate tomorrow shows they are treating the public with contempt. In a statement he says:

The Conservatives say they want to lead but they won’t even turn up to debate the issues that matter to our country.

Each of them are treating the nation with utter contempt and they’ve been taking people for granted for long enough.

Conservative candidates’ attempt to duck scrutiny just makes a general election at the end of this campaign even more necessary.

Updated

Penny Mordaunt’s campaign has criticised the decision by Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss not to take part in the Sky TV debate that had been planned for tomorrow, my colleague Jessica Elgot reports. Mordaunt has blamed Sunak and Truss for not being able to debate each other “in a civil way”.

UPDATE: The Mordaunt campaign subsequently retracted this statement. See 12.06pm.

Updated

Rishi Sunak would be happy to take part in further TV debates if (as expected) he makes it onto the final shortlist of two for the members’ ballot, a campaign source has said. And the Liz Truss campaign says she is focused on the MPs’ hustings but will take part in any debate that all other candidates have signed up to.

Updated

Sky cancels planned Tory leadership debate after Sunak and Truss say they won't participate

Sky News has just announced it has cancelled the Tory leadership debate planned for tomorrow night after Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss said they would not take part. This is from Sky’s Tamara Cohen.

UPDATE: In a statement Sky News said:

Tuesday evening’s live television debate on Sky News between the Conservative party leadership candidates has been cancelled.

Two of the three candidates currently leading in the MPs ballots - Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss - have confirmed to Sky News that they do not want to take part.

Conservative MPs are said to be concerned about the damage the debates are doing to the image of the Conservative party, exposing disagreements and splits within the party.

Both are very welcome to taking part in future Sky News televised debates.

Updated

On Wednesday next week Guardian Live is hosting a discussion on who will be the next Conservative leader. The panel includes my colleagues Jonathan Freedland and John Crace, and Salma Shah, a former special adviser to Sajid Javid. Full details of the event, and how to get tickets, are available here.

Tory leadership candidates urged to boycott next TV debate amid concern damage first two have done to party's image

According to Steven Swinford from the Times, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are both thinking of pulling out of the Sky debate scheduled for tomorrow night partly because they are concerned about the impact the debates are having on the party’s reputation.

The influential ConservativeHome website is urging all the candidates to boycott tomorrow’s debate. In an article on the website posted this morning Paul Goodman, its editor, says the ITV one last night was a particular horror show for the party. He says:

Why on earth did the Conservative candidates in this contest sign up to be the victims of this political version of The Hunger Games? (It isn’t even clear if there’s a Katniss Everdeen to hand.) I’m afraid the answer is a) none of the candidates dared stand up to the broadcasters, even if they wanted to, and b) the institutional party hasn’t the clout to put the stop to it.

Did it not occur to any of the candidates and their teams, when they saw the ITV format, that it was the equivalent of the Hunger Games’ cornucopia gambit – in which the contestants bludgeon, knife, shoot and strangle each other to death in order to get at vital supplies? Having the nastiest punchline might floor your opponent? But will it help you form a stable government if you win?

Tory MPs and activists will have watched in horror as several of the candidates flung buckets of manure over each other. Or tore into the record of the Government in which all of them have served. Or sought to distance themselves from policies which they have supported, or are committed to support.

Updated

Mordaunt has neglected some of her trade department work because of her campaigning, says her ministerial boss

Penny Mordaunt, the Tory leadership candidate, has been accused by her ministerial boss of neglecting some of her government duties while she has been focusing on her leadership campaign.

The accusation came from Anne-Marie Trevelyan, the international trade secretary. Mordaunt is the minister of state in the department - effectively Trevelyan’s deputy.

Trevelyan, who is backing Tom Tugendhat for the Tory leadership, told LBC:

We all do our jobs in different ways. Understandably, perhaps, now it’s clear, Penny has for the last few months spent some of her time focused on preparing her leadership campaign, for which I have utmost respect, that’s how this system works ...

There have been a number of times when she hasn’t been available, which would have been useful, and other ministers have picked up the pieces.

Previously similar claims about Mordaunt neglecting her departmental duties have been made by unnamed government sources.

I have asked the Mordaunt campaign for a response and will post their reply when I get it.

In her interview, Trevelyan also hinted that she would not be surprised to see Tugendhat falling out of the contest tonight. Paying tribute to his skills, she said:

He has this extraordinary ability to bring people together to work with him who would not otherwise work together. I think it’s a genuine gift and I wanted the rest of the world to see much more of it.

If this isn’t his time, I hope that there will be a future time when he can lead the party.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

Updated

Pat McFadden, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, has written to Nadhim Zahawi, challenging him to provide more clarity about his tax and financial affairs, my colleague Heather Stewart reports.

IMF official tells Tory leadership candidates that using extra borrowing to fund tax cuts would be mistake

Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, stands out in the Conservative party leadership contest because he is the only candidate firmly opposed to increasing borrowing to fund immediate tax cuts. As the voice of fiscal orthodoxy, it is perhaps not surprising that his stance is backed by the International Monetary Fund, whose UK head, Mark Flanagan, told the BBC: “I think debt-financed tax cuts at this point would be a mistake.”

Flanagan said it would be better for the UK to invest in services that would promote long-term growth. He said:

The UK does have a below-average tax ratio relative to the rest of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. You can’t have it both ways.

At some point you have to decide, do we want to invest in the climate transition? Do we want invest in digitalisation? Do we want to invest in skills for the public. Well, if you do you need the resources to do it. And the way to realise those resources is to lift the tax ratio a little bit.

Tory MPs to vote in third ballot, with Rishi Sunak buoyed by snap debate poll

Good morning. Tonight Conservative MPs will vote in the third ballot for the party leadership and the two TV debates over the weekend mean that Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, starts the week looking even more certain than he was of taking one of the two slots on the final ballot for members. Who will take the other one is more uncertain, but after Friday’s debate it did not seem entirely impossible that Kemi Badenoch (4th in the last round of voting) could overtake Liz Truss (3rd) and Penny Mordaunt (2nd), who were both surprisingly unimpressive. They both improved noticeably last night, Truss in particular, and now she must feel a bit more confident about overtaking Mordaunt and grabbing the second slot on the final ballot.

The Conservative party has been letting members choose leaders from a shortlist of two since 2001 (when Iain Duncan Smith won) and normally by the time the shortlist of two has been picked it is clear that one candidate is likely to win. This time round the outcome will be more uncertain. Pollsters, and the ConservativeHome website, have been polling party members on how they would vote in one-to-one contests. The ConHome figures from yesterday suggest Truss would beat Sunak. But the same figures suggest she would beat him by just seven points, despite having a 17-point lead over him the previous week, which means opinion is very fluid, and the campaign is shifting allegiances.

Opinium has now released the full results of its snap poll conducted after last night’s debate. It suggests that Sunak was seen as doing best in the debate, and that Truss improved most since Friday.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10am: Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, hosts an LBC phone in. She is standing in for James O’Brien, who is on holiday. Other MPs are appearing later this week.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 3.30pm: Boris Johnson is expected to open a debate on a motion of confidence in the government.

5pm: Voting opens in the third ballot for the Conservative party leadership contest. It closes at 7pm, and the result is announced at 8pm.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter. I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Alternatively, you can email me at andrew.sparrow@theguardian.com

Updated

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