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Boris Johnson won final showdown with Jeremy Hunt, poll of Sun readers says
BORIS Johnson was the winner of last night's Sun debate with Jeremy Hunt, our readers have said.
The runaway favourite for No10 also generated much more online buzz during the Final Showdown encounter.
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The 90-minute head-to-head saw the two Tory leadership candidates clash on Brexit and immigration but unite in condemning Donald Trump's race row tweets.
An overnight poll of more than 1,000 readers found 75 per cent thought Boris had performed better with 15 per cent praising Mr Hunt instead.
Just over half said Mr Johnson should be the next PM, while a third preferred his rival.
But the Tory activists who asked questions of both candidates were more divided - praising the two men for their energetic performance.
Sam Baker said: "I actually think if they work together as a team - if you could merge the two of them together I think they might have a chance.
"You need Jeremy's attitude and his approach, but you need Boris in the room to get everyone together - he makes the whole room laugh here."
Luke Black added: "I came in here really pitching for Boris, but I think Hunt came across really well."
And Rachael Cole said: "I was going into it thinking Boris was the superior but I thought Hunt spoke really well.
Analysis of the online reaction by Storyful shows that Mr Johnson dominated conversation around the debate.
He attracted three times as many mentions as Mr Hunt during the broadcast - 1,800 compared to 526.
Sun readers say Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt should work together as Prime Minister amid chummy debate
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Other politicians who were often mentioned online included Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, who were both criticised by the candidates.
The most used hashtag was BoJo's campaign tag #BackBoris which was deployed by both MPs and grassroots supporters.
The leadership campaign will end in a week with the winning candidate announced on July 23 and taking office the next day.
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