The cost of living, taxes, discussions about Boris Johnson’s Government and questions to each other were some of the key moments during the second Conservative leadership debate.

Former chancellor Rishi Sunak accused Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and international trade minister Penny Mordaunt of socialism and the candidates who were appointed to Mr Johnson’s Cabinet and Government defended their positions during his tenure.

All five also ruled out a 5% pay rise for public sector workers and calling a snap election to secure a mandate if they secure the keys to Number 10.

Here are the key points raised during the hour-long debate aired on ITV:

– Silence over Boris Johnson’s future

None of the Tory leadership candidates said they would give Mr Johnson a job in their cabinets if they won the leadership election.

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The five contenders to replace the Prime Minister – Mr Sunak, Ms Truss, Ms Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat – were asked whether they would let him sit at their cabinet table.

None raised their hand.

But Ms Mordaunt shouted: ‘He got Brexit done!’

– No snap general election

The five candidates all ruled out calling a snap election to secure a mandate from the public if they became prime minister.

Asked if she would call an election, Ms Mordaunt said: ‘No, we all stood on the same manifesto, we all have to come together and it’s a shared manifesto and a shared vision.’

Mr Tugendhat said: ‘No, we have a manifesto to deliver and I intend to deliver it. By showing leadership and commitment we can bring the party together, bring the country together, end this disunity and actually have a clean start.’

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Ms Badenoch said: ‘We need to give people some stability, they are tired of all the upheaval.’

Ms Truss said: ‘No to a general election, we need 100% of all of our effort on delivering for the people of Britain, I’m the person who can do that.’

Mr Sunak said: ‘We face an enormous economic challenge and we now need someone who has got the grip and the experience to deal with that, and that should be the priority going forward for the next leader.’

– No 5% pay rise for public sector workers

Ms Truss said: ‘I think it is very important that the government does stick to our guns because what we can’t have is a wage-price spiral.’

Ms Badenoch added: ‘I would love to tell all the public sector workers you’ll get 5%, 10%. But the truth is it’s not going to be that easy.

‘We need to create an economy that can fund it and I’m not sure we’re there yet.’

Mr Sunak and Mr Tugendhat said minister should rely on independent pay review bodies, which are due to give their recommendations for millions of NHS staff, teachers and other workers this week.

Mr Mordaunt said: ‘I think this is not the place to be making judgments. We have Pay Review bodies.’

– Questions posed to each other

The candidates were allowed to ask each other a question.

Mr Sunak and Foreign Secretary Ms Truss hit out at each other with their questions, with the former Chancellor asking: ‘You’ve been both a Lib Dem and Remainer. Which one do you regret most?’

Ms Truss said she had been on a ‘political journey’ and cited her experience of ‘seeing kids at my school being let down in Leeds’ as her reason as to why she became a Conservative.

Ms Truss asked Mr Sunak: ‘Do you still think we should be doing more business with China?’

He referred to the Integrated Review, which describes China as ‘a massive threat to our national security’ and called for legislation ‘which stops hostile investment into this country’.

Mr Sunak said this should not prevent the UK from engaging with countries around the world.

– Tax policies

The candidates clashed heavily on taxes during the second debate, with Mr Sunak hitting back Ms Truss and Ms Mordaunt’s views on tax cuts after they criticised him.

Ms Truss attacked Mr Sunak’s record in the Treasury, while Ms Mordaunt said limited tax cuts she advocated were not inflationary.

Mr Sunak accused Ms Truss of peddling ‘something-for-nothing’ economics and said in response to Ms Mordaunt’s fiscal borrowing proposals: ‘Even Jeremy Corbyn didn’t go that far.’

– Sunak defends previous non-domiciled tax status and her family’s wealth

Mr Sunak defended his wife Akshata’s previous non-domiciled tax status and her family’s wealth during the debate.

He said he is ‘really proud’ of how his billionaire father-in-law NR Narayana Murthy, who launched IT services company Infosys, made his fortune.

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Mr Sunak said: ‘So I’ve always been a completely normal UK taxpayer, my wife is from another country so she’s treated differently, but she explained that in the spring and she resolved that issue, but there is commentary about my wife’s family’s wealth.

‘So let me just address that head on, because I’m actually incredibly proud of what my parents-in-law built.

‘My father-in-law came from absolutely nothing, just had a dream and a couple of hundreds pounds that my mother-in-law’s savings provided him, and with that he went on to build one of the world’s largest, most respected, most successful companies that by the way employs thousands of people here in the United Kingdom.

‘It’s an incredibly Conservative story, actually it’s a story I’m really proud of and as prime minister I want to ensure that we can create more stories like theirs here at home.’

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