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ITV News deputy political editor Anoushka Asthana has the latest on the Tory leadership race as the TalkTV debate ends prematurely
A Tory leadership debate hosted by TalkTV and The Sun ended dramatically midway through when host Kate McCann collapsed on air.
A little more than halfway through Tuesday’s showdown between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, a loud crash in the studio interrupted the proceedings. Ms Truss looked visibly distressed and could be heard saying “oh my god” as she walked off stage.
The foreign secretary looked visibly distressed and could be heard saying “oh my god” as he left the stage.
After the outage, TalkTV dramatically went off air. Programming restarted minutes later, but the broadcaster lashed out at host Ian Collins instead of returning to the debate.
TalkTV said Ms McCann was “fine” but the debate would not resume on Tuesday night.
She was due to appear alongside The Sun’s political editor Harry Cole, but he tested positive for Covid-19 earlier on Tuesday.
After confirming the debate would not resume, Mr Sunak said it was “good news” that Ms McCann was on the mend.
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He tweeted: “It was a great debate and I look forward to being grilled by you again soon!”
Ms Truss said she was “relieved” to hear Ms McCann was OK but was also “really sorry that such a good debate had to end”. During the clash, Mr Sunak and Ms Truss again clashed over taxes, NHS funding and the economy.
Ms Truss said it was “morally wrong” to raise taxes during a cost-of-living crisis, but Mr Sunak quickly hit back, saying it was “morally wrong” to pile more debt on future generations.
Mr Sunak also said it was “perfectly reasonable” to ask the biggest companies to pay “a bit more” tax as they had received taxpayer-funded support during the pandemic.
Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana previews the rest of the debate
“They will still pay a very generous tax compared to most other countries,” he added. But Ms Truss, who said she would reverse the planned 19p to 25p rise in corporation tax, said: “I’m not talking about cutting corporation tax, I’m talking about not raising it.” Mr Sunak’s policies would have made the UK less competitive and are pushing the country into recession, she warned.
The pair also clashed over the rise in National Insurance introduced by Mr Sunak to help pay for the NHS and social care.
Mrs Truss said she would scrap the increase in National Insurance and use general taxation to fund the NHS.
Political correspondent Carl Dinnen on how the leadership candidates are doing during the debate
The two Tory leadership contenders had certainly started trying to be nicer to each other tonight. Rishi Sunak – who was in such military form in last night’s debate – hadn’t interrupted Liz Truss once by the time tonight’s event was cancelled. What hasn’t changed is the basic argument about economics. It was everywhere. When Sunak said “Happy Birthday” to Truss (she’s 47 today), he quickly started talking about the economy. When she responded by saying she had lots of cards and cake, that also became a point for her economic plan. In other matters, it may be more difficult to distinguish between the two. Both want NHS reform and support fracking. And all this is a problem for Sunak. If the polls are correct (which his team disputes), then he needs another selling point to get back into this race. Because the ones that are out there don’t seem to work.
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