Johnson under pressure to debate with Hunt

Are you running scared? That was the question from one Conservative activist to Boris Johnson today, demanding to know why he wouldn’t take part in a direct debate with his leadership rival Jeremy Hunt at today’s Conservative hustings in Exeter.

Not a bit of it, insisted Mr Johnson, claiming it was no use spending time “tearing lumps out of each other”. By contrast, Mr Hunt declared that he was very much up for the prospect.