london the latest televised debate between the two conservative contenders vying to become britains next prime minister was abruptly halted tuesday evening after the moderator fainted on stagelive footage of the debate between former finance minister rishi sunak and foreign secretary liz truss on media tycoon rupert murdochs new talktv channel was suddenly interrupted about halfway into the hourlong eventmoments earlier truss had stopped speaking midsentence with a shocked look on her face as the sound of crashing in front of her engulfed the broadcastoh my god a stunned truss exclaimed before leaving her podium to walk towards where the debate moderator talktvs political editor kate mccann had been standing off camerathe talktv channel which launched in april and was hosting the debate alongside the sun newspaper later confirmed mccann had faintedalthough she is fine the medical advice was that we shouldnt continue with the debate it added in a short statementanother talktv host ian collins who began broadcasting from the channels studio after a short delay said the candidates were continuing with an questionandanswer session off camera with the small audience present at the debaterelieved to hear kateemccann is fine truss tweeted around an hour after the incidentreally sorry that such a good debate had to end she saidsunak also took to twitter to call it good news that the moderator was said to be on the mendit was a great debate and i look forward to getting grilled by you again shortly he addedthe event had already been hit by misfortune after the suns political editor harry cole was forced to withdraw as a comoderator earlier tuesday after testing positive for covid19the debate was the second within 24 hours for sunak and truss after the pair squared off monday night in a feisty bbc debatethe duo are contesting a runoff to be the conservatives new leader and thereby prime minister with the ruling partys approximately 200000 members set to vote next monththe winner to replace outgoing prime minister boris johnson will be announced on september 5