Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy has hit out at claims that the broadcaster's debate - which he chaired - sidelined hard Brexiteer Dominic Raab.
Senior Tories and their cheerleaders last night latched on to the idea that somehow Channel 4's debate was biased against ex-Brexit Secretary Mr Raab, because he spoke for less time than his rivals.
But Mr Guru-Murthy hit back at the claims saying that the Tory leadership candidate got less time because he was more efficient.
Mr Raab's answers were timed at 10 minutes two seconds, behind rivals Sajid Javid (11 min, 23 sec), Rory Stewart (12 min, 9 sec), Jeremy Hunt (12 min, 13sec) and Michael Gove (14 min, 30 sec).
The Channel 4 host tweeted:"@DominicRaab answered the questions in a crisper way than his rivals.
"Perhaps his legal mind.
"So given the same opportunities, he took up a bit less time.
"That’s a potential strength - people hate waffle. But in bizarre culture wars you get silly stories like this."
A source close to the Hard Brexit backing ERG told The Telegraph said: "A Channel 4 audience hated Dom because he had the courage to stand up to everything they hate.
"A really courageous performance by seemingly the only man in the room concerned about not losing even more Tory voters."
James Cleverly, a Johnson acolyte, said the debate was set up to get Tories to attack each other.
He said: "This Channel 4 debate is geared up to encourage Conservative leadership candidates to knock chunks out of each other.
"That’s not how this campaign should be conducted. It’s probably good for Channel 4’s viewing figures but I’m astonished that so many candidates are playing along."
