In charts: How Rishi Sunak pulled ahead of Liz Truss at Telegraph hustings

Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss battled it out in Cheltenham on Thursday night at their sixth Tory leadership hustings, hosted by The Telegraph’s Camilla Tominey.

The event drew the biggest audience of the leadership contest so far, with Tory voters in the room able to ask the candidates questions live.

Thousands more tuned in online, with 72,000 votes cast by Telegraph readers throughout the evening to indicate whether they were for or against the Foreign Secretary and former chancellor’s pitches.

An analysis of those votes, cast in real time, puts Mr Sunak in the lead, despite Ms Truss having led in recent polls of party members.

Where 52 per cent of votes cast for Ms Truss were supportive, Mr Sunak secured a 69 per cent positivity rating throughout the hour-long question and answer session.

We take a look at the moments that our readers felt were triumphs for each candidate – as well as when they didn’t quite hit the mark.

Liz Truss

Up first was Ms Truss. Throughout her contribution, the audience reacted most positively when she gave her vision of a low-tax economy and a passionate defence of conservatism.

“We need strong Conservatives being proud of who we are,” she said, claiming Jeremy Corbyn was evidence that socialism was still a threat.

Arguing against tax rises, including the “Labour idea” of a windfall tax, and the idea that “profit is a dirty word”, Ms Truss secured her highest sustained period of support throughout her session.

But the highest ranked individual moment appeared around her dismissal of the National Insurance increase, with 61.1 per cent of readers supporting the idea that conservatism should not be about taking money from people’s pockets.

Similarly, her view that “we can’t tax ourselves to net zero” met with 60.7 per cent approval.

Her low point came when she avoided directly answering what support vulnerable people would receive in the cost of living crisis, noting she did not want to take people’s money and give it back in benefits.

However, it was during her rival’s time on stage that the highest negative sentiment for Ms Truss came.

Her approval dropped to 38.4 per cent when Mr Sunak claimed her “corporation tax policy is simply wrong,” noting that lower corporation tax had been in place for a decade and yet had not raised productivity.

But her positivity rate also saw its high point throughout the evening during Mr Sunak’s time on stage.

When the former chancellor was asked why he should be trusted on the economy and gave his views on a £10 fine for missed NHS appointments, Ms Truss’s rating jumped into the 60s.

Rishi Sunak

Mr Sunak maintained a high approval rating throughout the evening. Like Ms Truss, his ratings peaked during rival’s time on stage time on the stage.

His approval jumped as high as 86 per cent when Ms Truss was asked whether she was trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher. Ms Truss replied that was her own person, but also that a man would not be asked a similar question.

Where Ms Truss performed well on the ideals of conservatism, Mr Sunak’s strengths came in the way of bringing integrity back into politics.

Asked about how he could help win elections, his response gained a 77.4 per cent positive response when he said: “The most powerful thing I can do to appeal to those people, for all of us, all those non-ideological swing voters, is that they want a government that works competently, seriously, with decency and integrity at the heart of everything it does.”

Similarly high were his pledges to bring an ethics adviser back into government – a vacant position since Lord Geidt resigned amid partygate – and his pledge to support parliamentary scrutiny into Boris Johnson’s behaviour.

Challenges to Ms Truss’s tax policy were also well received. While readers had positive views on lowering taxes, they were equally receptive to Mr Sunak’s view that scrapping the National Insurance rise would do little to help the most vulnerable.

His approval rating never dropped below 50 per cent, unlike Ms Truss, but there were clear moments of dissatisfaction.

Support dropped to 57 per cent when his track record on the recovery of Covid loan fraud and the idea that he was simply a “nominal Brexiteer” were raised.

His support also fell during Ms Truss’s slating of governments who promise one thing and deliver another. When the Foreign Secretary said she was “honest and people can trust me”, Mr Sunak’s rating fell to 54.1 per cent – its lowest of the evening.