THE five candidates in the increasingly bitter race to replace Boris Johnson are set to face each other tonight in the first televised hustings of the contest.

Over the space of 90 minutes, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss, Kemi Badenoch, and Tom Tugendhat will answer questions from an audience of floating voters in a bid to keep alive their dream of becoming the next Prime Minister. 

The Herald:

The debate on Channel 4 comes as one of the most influential Tory peers called on the stragglers to quit the contest, and attacked the record of Ms Mordaunt, the members' favourite.

David Frost, the former Brexit minister and urged Ms Badenoch to step aside for Ms Truss

Writing in the Telegraph, he said that she and Suella Braverman, the attorney general who was knocked out in yesterday’s round of voting, had “set out convincing programmes, with differing emphases, for change.”

“But Liz’s depth of experience, her energy and ideas – as well as the simple fact she has the most votes of the three – put her in the lead.

“It is now time for pragmatism. I urge Kemi to stand down in return for a serious job in a Truss administration.”

Ms Badenoch’s campaign said she was “in it to win”.

Her spokesman said: “Kemi has brought interesting ideas and a new approach to this leadership contest. She is looking forward to the debates this weekend.

“She has no intention of stepping down and is in it to win.”

Lord Frost, also claimed Ms Mordaunt had been “absent on parade” when he worked with her on post-Brexit negotiations last year.

The peer said he had to ask for her to be moved to a different role in government because she was not up to the job. 

He told Talk TV he was "quite surprised” she was in second place in the contest. 

“She was my deputy - notionally, more than really - in the Brexit talks last year,” he said.

"I felt she did not master the detail that was necessary in the negotiations last year. She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the European Union when that was necessary.”

He added: "She wasn’t fully accountable, she wasn’t always visible. Sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.

"This became such a problem that, after six months, I had to ask the Prime Minister to move her on and find somebody else to support me."

Ms Braverman, who has thrown her weight behind Truss, has also attacked Ms Mordaunt, accusing her of failing to stand up for women and of not being an “authentic Brexiteer.” 

She praised Ms Mordaunt as a “very good politician”, but added that “I disagree with Penny on some key issues”.

Ms Braverman said: “My perception of Penny is she takes a different view to me when it comes to gender ideology and the position of trans, for example, I think she said a trans women is a woman, I disagree with that.”

Former cabinet minister David Davis, a supporter of Ms Mordaunt, criticised the “black ops” being directed at her.

“I wouldn’t describe it as friendly fire,” he told Sky News. “It’s absolutely clockwork – you get to the point that somebody gets ahead and looks to be the real challenger and then the black op starts, the incoming fire starts.”

Transport minister and Truss backer Wendy Morton, appearing on Times Radio, said her candidate was “absolutely not” involved in any kind of "black ops."

She said: “What I am involved in is a campaign to get Liz Truss elected as the next leader of the Conservative Party because I happen to think, I know, that she’s the right candidate.

“I worked with her at the Foreign Office and I saw first hand how hard-working she is, how dedicated she is, and how she just gets on with the job and she delivers.”

In yesterday's round of voting Mr Sunak picked up 101 votes in the second ballot, Ms Mordaunt 83, Ms Truss 64, Ms Badenoch 49 and Tom Tugendhat 32. 

The next ballot of MPs will be n Monday. 

Mr Tugendhat dismissed speculation that he might drop out of the contest, by sharing a video of Johnny Cash covering the Tom Petty song, I won’t back down.