Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has derided the BBC’s plan for a live TV debate with Tory leadership rival Boris Johnson, saying that staging it when “90% of members” have already voted is an “absolute joke.”

Hunt took to social media on Tuesday to decry Fran Unsworth, director of BBC News & Current Affairs, for a proposition that would have “zero influence” on the outcome of who will become Britain’s next prime minister.

2/2 Other broadcasters had the courage to empty chair no shows. What happened to scrutiny without fear or favour at the BBC? Many Beeb journalists will be deeply uncomfortable at this caving to Lynton Crosby. Come on BBC - this is for OUR PRIME MINISTER! — Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 2, 2019

Voting opens on July 6 when 160,000 Conservative members receive their postal ballots, with the final deadline falling on July 21, less than a week after the BBC’s suggested date, July 16.

Hunt accused the BBC of disrespecting Tory members and the public for “caving” into demands from Lynton Crosby, the political strategist thought to be advising Johnson, branding it an “absolute joke.”

So far, there are only two confirmed head-to-head debates between the pair – July 9 on ITV, and July 15 with the Sun newspaper.

It comes as both men pitched their leadership credentials to Conservative members at the latest hustings event near Belfast. Hunt told attendees that the controversial Irish backstop “has to change or it has to go,” insisting that there needed to be a “technology-led solution.”

The new UK prime minister will be announced on July 23.

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