Appear before a Channel 4 studio audiences accused Ms. Truss and Ms. Badenoch of supporting self-identification when she was responsible for equality issues – something she vehemently denied.
The Minister of International Trade said that although she had conducted a consultation on the Gender Recognition Act, she had never been in favor of self-ID.
I take it as a big fat compliment that no one wants to compete with me
“I can’t imagine why people don’t understand what I’m saying and have been spitting this issue out for weeks and weeks,” she said.
“I’m a woman, I’m a biological woman in every cell of my body,” she said, adding that a man who had passed on was “not the same as me.”
But Mrs Badenoch, the former Equal Opportunities Minister, said she found her rival’s story difficult to accept.
“When I took over as Minister of Equal Opportunities in 2020, there was a push to become self-ID. I don’t understand how that would have changed if someone else hadn’t. It is my understanding that the previous minister who had the role (Mrs Mordaunt) wanted an ID,” she said.
Mrs. Mordaunt replied, “That is not correct. This is all recorded.”
However, Ms Truss, who was responsible for equality in addition to her role as Secretary of State, said there was a plan to make progress on self-ID.
“I believe in women’s rights. I also believe that transgender people should be treated with respect, so I changed the outcome so that we made the program simpler and friendlier, but no further with self-ID,” she said.
Earlier, Ms Mordaunt said the attacks showed she was the candidate to beat.
“I take it as a big big compliment that no one wants to compete with me,” she said.
There were further clashes over taxes when former Chancellor Rishi Sunak defended his record with the Treasury when he attacked Mr Mordaunt and Ms Truss over their promised budget cuts.
He stressed the need to tackle inflation, saying: “We can’t make it worse, inflation is the enemy that makes everyone poorer.
“I don’t think it is responsible right now to start with an unfunded deluge of loans and more debt. That will only make inflation worse, it will make the problem longer.”
Ms Truss blamed the Bank of England saying: “We have inflation because of our monetary policy, that we haven’t been tight enough on the money supply, that’s the way I would tackle that problem”.
Sunak told her, “Borrowing your way out of inflation is not a plan, it’s a fairy tale.”
Mrs. Truss replied, “I think it is wrong to levy taxes.”
Previously, Tom Tugendhat tried to make a virtue of being the only candidate with no ministerial experience.
“We need a break from the Johnson years. That’s why I’m here. We need to make sure we can trust our politicians,” he said.
He received applause from the public when he – only among the candidates – answered the question of whether Boris Johnson was an “honest man” with the single word “No”.