Isabel Hardman

Whatever side they're on, most Tory MPs now think the leadership contest is getting a bit much. They're worried about the attacks across camps - though of course those who have declared for a candidate tend to think it's their rivals who are doing the worst mudslinging.  Labour’s attack unit need scarcely lift a finger as the lines for future campaign leaflets and PMQs are writing themselves One MP who has gone public with his complaints is Justin Tomlinson, who resigned as deputy chairman of the party so he could back Kemi Badenoch.

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have just finished their most cynical hustings of the Tory leadership contest so far. The pair were addressing a party audience in Darlington, and had tailored their stump speeches and answers to a ‘Red Wall’ audience. The picture that these answers painted of what both think of Red Wall Tories was fascinating: both of them wanted to talk as much about the importance of recognising biological sex as they did about the cost of living, with Truss telling the audience that as a ‘straight-talking Yorkshire woman, I know that a woman is a woman’.

After England scored their first goal last night, the team visibly relaxed and had a spell of playing happily until Germany equalised. Liz Truss was in the crowd and saw that sudden surge in confidence up close. Tonight we saw the same from the frontrunner. She enjoyed the latest hustings in Exeter, making jokes about how all the popular misconceptions of her were true. At times it seemed as though the interviewer (Seb Payne, formerly of this parish) and the audience were trying to find out more about what she'd do when she was in No. 10, not if. By contrast, the questions to Rishi Sunak were more about why members should give him a hearing when he had been disloyal to Boris Johnson and had put up their taxes.

Tonight's membership hustings in the Tory leadership contest showed both candidates – but particularly Liz Truss – relaxing and even enjoying themselves a fair bit. But they also underlined what the two of them feel they have to say in order to get a hearing with their selectorate.  Both had to commit to more grammar schools because this is a policy that – in spite of abundant evidence suggesting it does not improve social mobility or educational excellence in the way the two claimed tonight – the membership and indeed many Conservative MPs get misty-eyed about. Both will also have been very aware of quite how angry many members in the audience were about Boris Johnson being forced out of office, as they see it.

Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak barely have time to catch their breath after last night’s scrappy debate: today they’re back on set for a TalkTV hustings. Sunak had hoped to use yesterday’s BBC head-to-head to close the 24-point lead that Truss has with Conservative members, but his tactics have left many wondering if he’s damaged his cause even more. His constant interruptions and refusal to let Truss finish her points might have seemed a good idea in rehearsals, but they have allowed a ‘mansplaining’ narrative about the normally overly polite politician to take hold. In a previous debate, Truss claimed her weakness was that she was too enthusiastic, but last night Sunak was the one with an excessive amount of energy.

Rishi Sunak’s big pitch this weekend is to grip the NHS waiting list crisis. It makes political sense, given the terrifying size of these lists now, with some trusts declaring their waits ‘unmanageable’. By the time of the next election, the crisis in the NHS is going to seem monstrous. Ethical concerns tend to end up fading whenever a government has failed to do the long-term planning it could have done The former chancellor is worried that the surge in people seeking private treatment is ‘privatisation by the back door’. James and I discuss the wider context of this on our latest Coffee House Shots podcast, agreeing that if people feel forced to go private, the underlying public consent for the NHS itself will start to erode.

After the last televised leadership debate was cancelled when Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak pulled out, we asked the remaining three candidates if they would come on SpectatorTV to face questions before Tory MPs’  final vote. (Since going to press the contenders will have been whittled down to two.) This is an edited transcript of their answers. Do you propose tax cuts? If so, how would you pay for them? PENNY MORDAUNT: On the current trajectory Rishi’s set us on, we are going to be one of the most uncompetitive nations in the OECD and that cannot be allowed to happen. We have to be able to compete. So there will need to be some changes. But exactly what – and when – is not the issue for this contest.