The Tory debate was full of love for the NHS but free of any ideas for radical reform

SIR – The Channel 4 debate between the five contenders to become prime minister was disappointing. None of them stood out as the person the country needs to lead it at this difficult time.

All the candidates are good people, but competing to tell us how trustworthy they are and how much they love the NHS simply isn’t impressive.

What people want to know is that the successful candidate will immediately put a figurative bomb under the failing NHS. The winner should explode the Civil Service blob so that ministers are surrounded with executives determined to implement their policies rather than defeat them; reconfigure welfare benefits towards the filling of job vacancies, and bring successful business figures into the heart of government to spend less taxpayer money much more efficiently.

Passion, imagination and steely resolve are required. The right candidate should shine out from the also-rans, but that has not happened yet.

John Twitchen

Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

SIR – We do not need another primo, but someone who can choose talented Cabinet members and then have Cabinet government bring policies to fruition.

Janey Mathews

Cheriton, Hampshire

SIR – All the Conservative candidates in Friday’s debate managed to achieve the impossible. They made Sir Keir Starmer appear charismatic.

Ken Bates

Chesterfield, Derbyshire

SIR – It would appear that Kemi Badenoch has forgotten that she and Liz Truss actually took over from Amber Rudd, who was the equalities minister after Penny Mordaunt (“Kemi Badenoch clashes with Penny Mordaunt over transgender issue in

Tory leadership debate”, telegraph. co.uk, July 16).

As a member of the government’s LGBT+ advisory panel, I can assure readers that Ms Mordaunt is indeed telling the truth. It was the former equalities minister, Justine Greening, who announced that the government would conduct a Gender Recognition Act consultation, which Ms Mordaunt then launched. The purpose was to help inform government policy, having been clear that the processes needed streamlining. The results were presented to Ms Truss and Ms Badenoch, but they then chose to ignore them – much to the upset of the LGBT+ community.

It is deeply unfortunate that this issue has become a political football. We must remember that at the heart of it are the lives of innocent people, who are already extremely vulnerable. Jayne Ozanne

Oxford

SIR – The elephants in the room never mentioned were HS2 and fracking. James Lonsdale

Bolton, Lancashire

SIR – The only question that should be asked of the candidates is this: if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow, next week or next year, what would they do? Adrian Johnston

Rugby, Warwickshire