Neither Boris Johnson nor Jeremy Hunt is up to the job of being PM

The Final Showdown, as the Sun/Talkradio’s debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt was billed, clarified some important points for Tory members still deciding how to cast their vote. Both candidates ruled out a general election before the UK leaves the EU, though Hunt warned that setting a deadline as Johnson has means we could ‘trip ourselves into an accidental general election before October 31’.

Both men were also clear that the backstop has had its day, with Hunt declaring it ‘dead’. The Foreign Secretary talked up technological solutions to the Irish border, while stressing the need for a ‘cast-iron guarantee’ to Dublin that there would be no hard border. Johnson wanted to remit the details until after Brexit but echoed Hunt’s comments on technology and the border.

Two matters on which the candidates parted ways were tax and immigration. Johnson briefly defended his tax cuts for higher-earners before pivoting to an attack on Jeremy Corbyn, whom he warned would even ‘tax your garden’.