The Tory leadership candidates have clashed over “fairytale” tax cuts, trans laws and whether Boris Johnson is “honest” in the first live TV debate of the contest.
The 90-minute discussion also saw some of the contenders attack climate emergency policies – while all appeared to rule out significant further immediate help with soaring energy bills.
In lively exchanges, former chancellor Rishi Sunak ripped into the tax-slashing plans of his rivals, warning that they would fuel inflation and leave everyone “poorer”.
Outsider Kemi Badenoch questioned race favourite Penny Mordaunt’s truthfulness when she denied trying to push through changes to allow people to self-identify as a different gender.
While the foreign secretary Liz Truss stumbled over answers, the candidate most likely to be knocked out next – Tom Tugendhat – won applause for being the only one to say outright that Mr Johnson is dishonest.
He also landed a blow on Mr Sunak over his tax hikes to boost NHS spending, claiming the former chancellor had urged him to vote for them “because the boss wanted it”.
A snap poll of 1,000 voters handed victory to Mr Tugendhat, the centrist candidate, with 36 per cent saying he performed best, ahead of Mr Sunak on 25 per cent, Opinium found.
All of the female candidates had a tough evening, with both Ms Mordaunt and Ms Badenoch scoring 12 per cent – while Ms Truss was deemed to be the clear loser, with just 6 per cent.
The first of three scheduled debates comes ahead of further ballots of Conservative MPs from Monday, to whittle down the five to just two candidates.
The winner will then be chosen by the 180,000-odd Tory members, after hustings through August, before Mr Johnson leaves Downing Street on 6 September.
In very different pitches, Ms Badenoch said it is “time to tell the truth”, while Mr Tugendhat argued he would be “a clean start” and Ms Mordaunt said she would not be “the traditional offer”.
Mr Sunak played on his experience as the contender “who can be trusted to grip this moment” – while Ms Truss turned her fire on him in hailing her “bold” break with his economic policy.
Ms Mordaunt, the new darling of the grassroots according to polls, struggled to get into the debate, while Ms Badenoch started nervously but gathered pace later.
She again attacked the 2050 net zero carbon emissions commitment, saying: “None of us are going to be here as politicians in 2050 – it’s very easy to set a target you are not going to be responsible and accountable for when the time comes.”
Both Ms Mordaunt and Ms Truss took aim at green levies on energy bills, while only Mr Sunak spoke passionately for net zero – saying it is the issue his two daughters pester him about.
In perhaps the key exchange, Mr Sunak – the only candidate ruling out early tax cuts – condemned the impact on prices, saying: “Inflation is the enemy that makes everyone poorer.
“It erodes your savings, it erodes your living standards, it means that those of you who have mortgages will see your interest rates go up higher and higher.”
He told Ms Truss: “Borrowing your way out of inflation isn’t a plan, it’s a fairytale.”. But she hit back, with an attack likely to appeal to Tory members, saying: “I think it is wrong to put taxes up.”
In a reality check for all the candidates, just three members of the Channel 4 audience said they believed that enough help was being offered for fuel bills tipped to hit an annual £2,800 in the autumn.
And only 10 said they are more likely to vote Conservative after what they heard – after Mr Johnson’s multiple scandals have handed Labour a healthy poll lead.
