Labour and Tories renew clashes in ill-tempered second election debate

Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt spar over taxes, defence and cost of living as others jostle for attention

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 BBC1 host, Mishal Husain.