By Ben Kerrigan-
Tonight’s Conservative Party leadership debate between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak was aborted prematurely, after presenter Kate McCann fainted during the live broadcast.
Ms Truss held her hands to her face and said “oh my God” after a loud crash was heard – and then the contest was taken off air.
The incident happened around half an hour into the debate, which saw the two candidates field questions from members of the public.
The recently launched conservative channel Talk TV from Rupert Murdoch announced the end of the debate mere minutes after viewers heard a loud crash off camera.
Earlier the Tory leadership candidates had been asked by a worried voter whether her family should go vegetarian because of the rising cost of meat.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were told by a woman named Gemma that price increases have made shopping for her loved ones difficult.
TalkTV said Ms McCann is “fine” but that the channel had been given medical advice not to continue.
“We apologise to our viewers and listeners,” it added in a statement.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss were in the middle of clashing again over taxes, NHS funding and the economy in their second head-to-head televised debate.
Well wishers posted messages on social media wishing the TalkTV political editor a speedy recovery.
Mr Sunak wrote: “Good news that you’re already recovering @KateEMcCann.
“It was a great debate and I look forward to getting grilled by you again shortly!
The competing couple took questions from Sun readers, with a cancer patient asking what could be done to fix the “broken” NHS and a struggling mum questioning if she should go vegetarian because of the rising price of meat.
Mr Sunak said he was “brave” to introduce a £12bn tax increase to pay for health social care, telling the audience: “I made sure we got the NHS the funding it needed to help work through the backlogs, get everyone the care they needed and do that as quickly as possible.
“It wasn’t an easy thing for me to do, I got a lot of criticism for it, but I believe it was the right thing to do as I don’t think we can have an NHS which is ultimately the country’s number one public service priority that is underfunded and not able to deliver the care it needs.”
However, Ms Truss, who vowed to immediately reverse the national insurance hike if she becomes prime minister, said it is “morally wrong” to raise taxes during a cost of living crisis.
She said she was committed to the extra money that was announced for the NHS but that she would fund this through general taxation.
She said: “Under my plans, we will still be able to start paying the debt down within three years, so it is affordable.
“We didn’t need to raise national insurance in order to pay, we did have that money available in the budget, it was a choice to break our manifesto commitment and raise national insurance.”
However, Mr Sunak quickly shot back, saying it was “morally wrong” to heap more debt on future generations because “we can’t be bothered to pay it off” now.
On how to fund things like public services, he said it was “entirely reasonable” to ask the largest companies to pay “a bit more” in corporation tax because they received billions in support to help them stay afloat during the pandemic.
However, Liz Truss, who wants to scrap the scheduled 19p to 25p increase in corporation tax, said Mr Sunak’s policies would make the UK less competitive and push the country into recession.
Mr Sunak conceded more support would be needed to help families pay their bills in October, when the energy price cap is predicted to go up once again. But he stopped short of announcing any new help.
Tory MPs are said to be concerned the contest is becoming “far too nasty” after the two sides traded increasingly personal attacks over the weekend.
With postal ballots set to arrive on Tory members’ doorsteps by 5 August, Mr Sunak needs good performances in the remaining debates and the early hustings.