Live Tory leadership debate canceled after U.K presenter passed out on air

According to SkyNews, the second clash between UK PM hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, hosted by conservative channel TalkTV, ended dramatically mid-way through on Tuesday after the debate's presenter Kate McCann suddenly collapsed. The pair featured in the event to discuss the economy, cost of living, tax, and NHS.

Truss was horrified by McCann's collapse

Secretary of State for Foreign Liz Truss, 47, was responding to a question from one member of the audience, who claimed he hasn't received proper health support from the government and asked: 'Why is the NHS (National Health Service) broken?'. Truss then answered, pointing at streamlining the managerial level and introducing new technology as solutions to the matter.

As Truss was in the middle of her speech, however, viewers witnessed her face turning pale as a loud crash echoed the TV set. It was later revealed that TalkTV's political editor Kate McCann, who moderated the debate, fainted and collapsed to the ground just 30 minutes into the debate. Shocked at McCann's accident, Truss said: 'Oh my god', before walking off camera to where McCann had been standing before to assist her. The debate did not resume after the unexpected incident.

TalkTV later took to Twitter to update that McCann is unhurt. The station wrote:

'Kate McCann fainted on air tonight and although she is fine, the medical advice was that we shouldn’t continue with the debate. We apologize to our viewers and listeners.'

Both UK PM candidates also tweeted to offer their best to McCann. Truss wrote:

'Relieved to hear Kate McCann is fine. Really sorry that such a good debate had to end. Look forward to catching up with Kate and the rest of The Sun Talk TV team again soon.'

Meanwhile, former Chancellor Sunak, who is expected to be the next Prime Minister, tweeted: 'Good news that you're already recovering. It was a great debate and I look forward to getting grilled by you again shortly!'

Sunak is behind Truss in race to become UK PM

According to Reuters, the debate was the second showdown between Sunak and Truss, with the first aired on the BBC. Before the debate came to a halt, Truss and Sunak were having a hostile clash over their tax and spending plans to address the cost of living crisis that is crippling the UK's economy.

Truss criticized Sunak, who has been adamant with his emphasis on curbing inflation first and cutting tax second. The 47-year-old politician said Sunak's actions could put pressure on business and employment and tip the economy into recession. Truss also hit at Sunak's decision to increase national insurance to provide Covid economic rescue packages, claiming it was 'morally wrong'. She said:

'What has happened is that the tax has been raised on families through national insurance so that they are having to pay more money to the Treasury. I do think it is morally wrong at this moment when families are struggling to pay for food that we have put up taxes on ordinary people when we said we wouldn’t in our manifesto and when we didn’t need to do so.'

Sunak responded by censuring Truss's failure to pay back the debts accrued during Covid. The former Chancellor said:

'What’s morally wrong is asking our children and grandchildren to pick up the tab for the bills that we are not prepared to meet,'

The 42-year-old politician added, referring to his tax plans:

'It wasn’t an easy thing for me to do, I got a lot of criticism for it, but I believe it was the right thing to do because I don’t think we can have an NHS which is ultimately the country’s number one public service priority that is underfunded and not able to deliver the care it needs.'

According to The Guardian, Truss is ahead of Sunak with 49 percent favor from Tory members, while Sunak only got 31 percent. 15 percent said they were not sure, while the rest 16 percent had no intention of voting.

The new Tory leader, who will also be UK's next PM after the scandal-ridden Boris Johnson, will be chosen by a ballot of more than 180,000 Conservative members and announced on September 5. Meanwhile, former UK PM Boris Johnson still remains in his office on 10 Downing Street as a caretaker until his successor is decided.

Read more:

⋙ Boris Johnson agreed to step down as UK PM after mass ministerial resignation

⋙ Race for UK PM: Who are the contenders and who is winning?