Elizabeth Truss and Rishi Sunak will go head to head in Norwich on Thursday night - but it looks highly likely the South West Norfolk MP will become prime minister in less than two weeks.

The sold-out, Conservative member only hustings - the last but one before the poll closes - gives the pair the chance to convince party members to vote for them.

And rather than being 'Ready for Rishi', it seems party members want 'Liz for Leader'.

A YouGov poll last week put Ms Truss on 66pc and Mr Sunak on 34pc - a 32-point lead.

While Mr Sunak slightly closed the gap on the previous week, political scientist and elections guru Sir John Curtice said he would be “extraordinarily surprised” if Ms Truss does not take office.

Among MPs, the gap is less pronounced. The ConservativeHome website has 145 supporting Ms Truss and 132 backing Mr Sunak.

Some of Ms Truss's nearest MP neighbours are not backing her. North West Norfolk MP James Wild, Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon and Waveney MP Peter Aldous are all backing Mr Sunak.

But North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker, Great Yarmouth MP Brandon Lewis and Norwich North MP Chloe Smith are supporting their county colleague.

Former chancellor Mr Sunak has focused his attacks on how Ms Truss would handle the economy, after reports suggested she will not ask the independent Office for Budget Responsibility for a forecast ahead of measures she is planning for next month.

Mr Sunak has warned millions of households in the UK could face “destitution” without further aid this winter, after claiming Ms Truss’s tax-cutting agenda could “pour fuel on the fire” of inflation.

Senior Tories have also criticised her economic plans, with former minister Michael Gove accusing her of taking a “holiday from reality”.

Yet the criticism has done little to throw Ms Truss's campaign off course.

She said "business as usual" cannot go on and railed against "Treasury orthodoxy".

She said: "This whole language of ‘unfunded’ tax cuts implies the static model, the so-called abacus economics that the Treasury orthodoxy has promoted for years, but it hasn’t worked in our economy because what we have ended up with is high tax, high spending and low growth.

“That is not a sustainable model for Britain’s future.”

After the votes of Conservative members are counted, Mr Johnson's successor will be confirmed on September 5.