RORY Stewart was accused of presenting the “same cold porridge” on Brexit as he clashed with his Tory rivals after insisting he would rule out a no-deal outcome completely.

The International Development Secretary, who earlier almost doubled his tally in the second round of voting, repeatedly insisted he was different from his rivals, who targeted him over Brexit.

Speaking during an at times bad-tempered live BBC TV debate, Mr Stewart - who wants to push Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement through Parliament for a fourth time, believing the EU will not renegotiate – noted how all the candidates had voted for the Prime Minister’s deal and called on them to do so again. "Let's get on with it, let's vote it through, let's get it done."

As the rivals frequently talked over each other, the Borders MP added: "In the end, we're in a room with a door and the door is called Parliament and I am the only person here trying to find the key to the door.

"Everybody else is staring at the wall shouting: 'Believe in Britain.'"

But Michael Gove took his fellow Scot to task, saying: "We've run into that door three times already, Rory; we've got to have a different route out.

"You cannot simply re-present the same cold porridge for a fourth time and ask people to say that's what they want. We need to have a different approach," insisted the Environment Secretary.

Boris Johnson, buoyed by again coming top in the second voting round with a commanding lead over his rivals, insisted Britain “must come out" of the EU on October 31 and warned: “Otherwise, I'm afraid, we face a catastrophic loss of confidence in politics.

"We have already kicked the can down the road twice and the British people are getting thoroughly fed up."

This was echoed by Sajid Javid, who said it had been a mistake to have a flexible deadline and a firm one was needed to concentrate the minds of the EU. "It is fundamental that it has to be by October 31."

However, both Jeremy Hunt and Mr Gove argued that a short delay beyond Hallowe’en might be necessary if a deal was within reach.

Stressing how he would walk away without a deal if there was no prospect of agreement by the deadline, the Foreign Secretary nonetheless stressed: “If we were nearly there, then I would take a bit longer."

Mr Gove, who said he was angry by the Brexit delay, also said he would be prepared to allow "extra time" if a deal was close.

And he declared: "Because I started this, I will finish it."

The hourlong debate followed just two hours after the second vote in which Dominic Raab, the former Brexit Secretary, was eliminated.

It also came after a poll showed a majority of Tory members, 63 per cent, said they would prefer Scotland to leave the UK rather than see Brexit not happen.

Keith Brown, the SNP’s depute leader, said the findings were an “utter disaster” for Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson, while Scottish Labour’s Lesley Laird said the snapshot showed the “biggest threat to the Union today is the Tory Party”.

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said: “No matter how badly people want Brexit, no Conservative and Unionist member should be prepared to turn their back on the UK."

Later during the TV debate, the leadership rivals rounded on Mr Johnson over his plan to cut taxes for people earning more than £50,000.

The former Cabinet minister said he would lift the National Insurance threshold for the low-paid but there should be a "debate" about the higher income tax rate.

"It does seem to be very odd in the Conservative Party people should seriously question whether it is right to try to lift nurses and heads of maths departments and police inspectors out of the top rate of tax," he said.

But Mr Hunt said: "What people accused the Conservatives of is they say we are the party of the rich. We must never fall into the trap of doing tax cuts for the rich and confirming that prejudice."

Mr Gove also attacked Mr Johnson, saying: “Boris is making one mistake on tax, which is that of the money we have he is concentrating on cutting taxes for folk who earn what MPs earn and what millionaires wrong.

"That is wrong. I went into politics to help the very poorest in our society and that is the way in which we show we are actually a party that can take on Jeremy Corbyn."

The former Foreign Secretary was also on the defensive over the incarceration of Nazanin Zagari-Ratcliffe, denying his erroneous suggestion that she had been involved in training journalists had contributed to an increased sentence in an Iranian jail. "In that case, it didn't make any difference," he declared.

When the controversy was raised over his likening veiled Muslim women to letter-boxes and bank robbers, Mr Johnson said: “In so far as my words have given offence over the last 20 or 30 years when I have been a journalist and people have taken those words out of my articles and escalated them, of course I am sorry for the offence they have caused."

Pressed on his previous calls for an independent investigation into allegations of islamophobia in the party, Mr Javid asked his fellow candidates: "Do you all agree guys? Shall we have an external investigation of the Conservative party into islamophobia?"

When each rival said he agreed, Mr Javid replied: “Excellent.”

The candidates were challenged on climate change by 15-year-old Erin from Glasgow. They committed to the Government’s promise to have net zero emissions by 2050 but their answers did not go far enough. Erin said: “To be honest, none of you has really impressed me in the way that I'm looking for."

She added that she did not think any of the candidates were willing to take "drastic, critical action".

The third round vote in the Tory leadership takes place today when at least one candidate will be eliminated.