Plans for a head-to-head televised debate between the Tory leadership contenders Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are on the brink of collapse.
Sky News, which offered to host a debate with an audience of Tory voters, has abandoned its plans after Conservative Party officials were unable to “reach agreement” with the rival camps.
It follows the collapse of bids to stage leadership debates by the BBC on Question Time and The Sun, hosted by its political editor Harry Cole.
The only shared broadcast platform has been GB News but the show hosted by Christopher Hope, its political editor, saw the two leadership contenders take the stage separately to answer questions from the audience rather than debate with each other head-to-head.
ITV’s Robert Peston show offered the two rivals the chance to debate their leadership bids but Mr Jenrick, the former immigration minister, ended up going on alone on Wednesday night after the broadcaster was spurned by Mrs Badenoch’s camp.
LBC is understood to have made a late offer of a debate hosted by Nick Ferrari but with only seven days to go before the ballots close, the proposal is believed to be mired in a bureaucratic to-ing and fro-ing that has scuppered the other offers.
Polls have put Mrs Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, ahead of Mr Jenrick with the party members who will decide the contest. As the potential frontrunner, this traditionally means she has more to lose by risking a televised debate.
While Mr Jenrick has challenged Mrs Badenoch to explain why she has not agreed to any debates, her camp has pointed to the rules agreed before the contest which stated that all candidates could only participate in televised hustings arranged by the party chairman.
On Wednesday night, Mr Jenrick said: “With seven days to go, and with tens of thousands of members yet to vote, they deserve to see the candidates debate head-to-head. This leadership was supposed to settle important questions, not kick them down the road. That’s a recipe for more disunity.
“As I have done throughout this campaign, I will make myself available for a debate any time, any place. It is for others to explain to the members why they won’t do the same.”
Sources from Mrs Badenoch’s camp point to the rules agreed ahead of the contest, which stated: “All candidates will be required to agree that they will not participate in any televised hustings between candidates unless arranged by the party chairman.”
“These are the rules that every candidate (including Rob) agreed to at the start of the contest. The question is not for us, it’s for the party chairman,” said one source.
A source at Conservative HQ said: “We haven’t been able to reach an agreement with the relevant parties for a debate.”
There were no televised head-to-head debates between any of the six candidates, which were whittled down to the last two with the elimination of James Cleverly.
The final four of Mrs Badenoch, Mr Cleverly, Mr Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat put their cases to the Tory conference, but sequentially. The ballot closes on Oct 31, with the winner of the vote to be announced on Nov 2.
