Tory leadership hustings latest: Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak face grilling in Darlington – follow live

Liz Truss retained a focus on immediate tax cuts today as she refused to be drawn on whether she would provide any direct financial support to Britons in her emergency Budget if elected.

The Foreign Secretary said she wanted “people to keep more of their money in their own pockets” and took aim at the current tax burden, which stands at a 70-year high.

“We are Conservatives, we believe in low taxes and what I’m not going to do is announce the next Budget in advance,” she told reporters.

“Of course, we’ll need to deal with the circumstances as they arise. My fundamental principle is that people should keep more of their own money… At present, there’s a recession predicted, and I don’t need to tell people what a recession is like.”