Conservative party leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt during a debate hosted by The Sun at Talk Radio in The News Building, London 15 July 2019.

The two candidates vying to be the next Tory party leader both ruled out a general election before delivering Brexit, and joined the prime minister in condemning Donald Trump's "totally unacceptable" tweets.

Speaking at what was expected to be the last live debate of the leadership contest on Monday evening, Boris Johnson said "we will have an election at some stage in 2022".

His rival Jeremy Hunt said he agreed with prime minister Theresa May in condemning Mr Trump after the president told US congresswomen to “go back” to the “broken and crime-infested places from which they came”.

Mr Johnson added that the language used by the US president was “totally unacceptable”.

However neither politician would go as far as to call the comments racist.

Earlier in the day, Mr Johnson was warned that suggestions he could strike an early US trade deal in October would be a "breach" of EU law.

International trade secretary Liam Fox dismissed reports that the Tory frontrunner could broker a deal with Washington as soon as the UK leaves the EU on 31 October, saying it was impossible to negotiate anything in earnest until after Brexit.