Conservative leadership contender Liz Truss has rejected a call to abolish abortion in Northern Ireland.

Abortion laws in the region were liberalised in 2019 in laws passed by Westminster at a time when the power-sharing government at Stormont had collapsed.

During a Conservative Party leadership hustings event at the Culloden Hotel on the outskirts of Belfast, Ms Truss was asked if she would abolish abortion in Northern Ireland, “ending infanticide”, or let the people of the region have their say on the issue.

She responded to applause: “I’m afraid I don’t agree with you.

“We are a United Kingdom and we need all of our laws to apply right across the United Kingdom – that is what being a union is.”

Ms Truss and Rishi Sunak both set out their cases to be the next leader of the Conservative Party – and the next prime minister – to party members in Northern Ireland on Wednesday.