UK Politics: Remaining Tory leadership candidates clash over tax policy and economic plan

In the United Kingdom, the five remaining Conservative candidates to become the prime minister of the country faced off in the first TV debate of the contest. They discussed trust, tax policy, the NHS, transexual rights, building a green economy, and energy bills. 

Tom Tugendhat, who gained the least votes in the second round of the leadership contest, was the winner of the debate as per a snap poll of 1,000 people. 

Former finance minister Rishi Sunak, who is one of the frontrunners, clashed over tax policy with British foreign minister Liz Truss. 

But when they did erupt, it came largely over taxation, with former finance minister Rishi Sunak, forced to defend plans to keep rates at some of the highest levels in decades. 

Former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat, chair of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, also remain in the running. Junior trade minister Penny Mordaunt is also a popular candidate. 

Mordaunt told television viewers: "I'm very aware that while my party chooses a new leader, you are watching us pick your next prime minister... I hope you like at least one of us." 

The economic policy remained the topic of discussion between Sunak and Truss as they tussled over in the debate, hosted by broadcaster Channel 4. 

Truss has proposed scrapping increases in payroll tax and corporation tax proposed by Sunak, at a cost of over $36 billion a year, to be funded by a slower reduction in government debt built up during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Sunak told Truss: "We have to be honest, borrowing your way out of inflation isn't a plan, it's a fairy tale." 

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