Mr Sunak, who campaigned for a Leave vote, said he was “bewildered” by accusations from some quarters that he was not pro-Brexit enough.
“I keep reading that somehow I’m not Brexity enough in this leadership race,” he said. “I really think I was the one who actually voted and campaigned for Brexit in the first place.
“I’ve radically created new freeports across the country, an idea I came up with that is currently attracting jobs and investment to places that desperately need it.”
He added: “My business background means I can lead our economy into the future and take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead if we are willing to be bold and ambitious to seize them.”
Ms Truss said she was “quite ambivalent at the time” about Brexit in the run-up to the 2016 referendum in which she voted to remain, and she was “not sure”. She said she was “concerned about the potential disruption” of leaving the EU.
Mrs Truss said she would not introduce an “arbitrary” cap on immigration because: “I think we should have the skills we need in our country, but I don’t believe in an arbitrary target and when we’ve had one before, it doesn’t work.”
She said she would withdraw Britain from the non-EU European Court of Human Rights, adding: “If I have to, but I would prefer to legislate through the British Bill of Rights.”
Asked how many post-Brexit trade deals were now in place, she said there were “just over 70” and that some had given UK businesses “better deals than they had in the EU”.
“I would like the media to spend more time talking about trade deals rather than political disputes,” she added.
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