Labour and the Conservatives renewed hostilities in the second TV debate of the campaign, with Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt clashing over taxes, defence and the cost of living in a series of bad-tempered exchanges.
In an echo of Tuesday’s head-to-head debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, Mordaunt, the Commons leader, several times raised the much-criticised idea that Labour would increase household taxes by £2,000, bringing derision from Rayner, and corrections from the BBC One host, Mishal Husain.
