after a drop off in donations as the cost of living crisis bites. and the british built space rover looking for work after its mission to mars was cancelled. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the prime minister has refused to rule out a real terms cut in benefits despite growing pressure to do so. liz truss faces a fresh battle with some conservative mps who want her to promise welfare payments will rise in line with inflation rather than earnings a lower percentage figure that would save the government billions of pounds. there s already a cabinet split on the issue. the leader of the commons penny morduant has openly demanded that benefits do go up in line with prices. this morning the prime minister told the bbc she would still like to see the rate of tax paid by the highest earners to be lower, despite ditching her plan to do just that only yesterday. iain watson reports from the conservative party conference. it s tin hat time for liz truss. she and her chancel
actor kevin spacey has pleaded not guilty to four charges of sexually protesters in sri lanka call an end to their occupation of government buildings as the country awaits the resignation of president rajapaksa. a bbc documentary reveals that hundreds of british dentists treat patients with serious complications after they travel abroad to get cut price crowns. voting in the second bone of the conservative leadership contest has endedin conservative leadership contest has ended in the past 30 minutes and we expect the result to be announced in one hour. six candidates at left today whoever finishes last will be knocked out. today one of the contenders, foreign secretary liz trust formally launched her campaign promising tax cuts and reversing the national insurance increase. yesterday she finished in third place behind former chancellor rishi sunak who won the first round of 88 votes and trade minister penny more than two at 67. liz truss was back about 50 mps of kemi badenoc
we ll also look at the crisis in sri lanka. the president has confirmed he will step down after protesters stormed his palace. and we ll look at twitter s share price, which has fallen welcome to college green in front of parliament, where the process of selecting a new leader of the conservative party and new prime minister is under way. if i m occasionally glancing this way and that, sir graham brady, the committee chair, will be speaking in the next few minutes. he will outline the rules of the tory party leadership contest. bear in mind since thursday, effectively that contest began. we still don t know precisely how that will work. what we do know is what the stages of the contest will be. first, each candidate will need to find a number of conservative mps to back them. in previous contests, it was eight. this time, it could be as high as 20. then the 358 conservative mps will vote for their favourite candidates in a series of elimination rounds. let s speak to our poli
line up and the weight that most are pledging to tax cuts if they win. and the way. also on the programme. a week of very high temperatures ahead for much of the uk, as the met office issues an extreme weather warning for the weekend. train drivers at eight rail companies have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in a dispute over pay. and england s women are the first team through to the euro quarterfinals after a stunning victory against norway. and coming up in the sport on the bbc news channel, a five star performance from england. it s a five wicket win as they dominate south africa in their first one day international. welcome to bbc news at ten. it s official the united kingdom will have a new prime minister by the 5th of september following an election to find a new leader of the conservative party. that process will begin tomorrow. so far, no fewer than 11 conservative mps have entered the fray. they ll need to be backed by at least 20 colleagues to be on the fi