BBC election debate live: Rishi Sunak faces Keir Starmer in final head-to-head before polling day | General election 2024

Rishi Sunak arrived at the venue of the debate.

This is from a colleague of mine Jessica Elgott in the spin room at the debate venue, where she says the campaign really heats up.

We are now in the spin room for the BBC and KIPI debate. 🥵

I just heard Wes Streeting say he’s “broadcasting live from an incinerator.”

Candidates feel the heat etc

Keir Starmer has arrived for the BBC debate.

Mishal Hussain, host of the Today program, is hosting tonight’s debate. in article to the BBC she says she wants it to be a proper debate.

I have participated in two seven-way leadership debates before, in 2017 and earlier this month. Each path has different complexities, and while you prepare by honing your knowledge of each country’s key policies – and their points of difference – you also want spontaneity and energy. A real debate indeed, not a rant.

According to the BBC, the audience members were selected by polling company Savanta and included an equal number of conservatives and Labor electors as well as undecided voters.

Given the unpopularity of the Conservative Party at the moment, this means that the audience will not be representative of the nation as a whole, but actually much more of the provosts. Today Ipsos political monitor provided a good reminder of how unpopular the government had become.

Good evening. Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer debate each other on the BBC at 8.15pm and I’m here to cover the build-up and the debate itself and provide reaction and analysis afterwards. This is only the second prime ministerial debate of the campaign, but Sunak and Starmer have regularly debated each other at PMQs since Sunak became prime minister 20 months ago. Unless the polls have managed to produce the biggest collective intelligence-gathering failure since people started polling, this will also be the last time they debate Sunak as prime minister.

Overall, Sunak had a poor campaign that (at least so far) confounded the conventional wisdom that “surveys always narrow” in the weeks before people actually vote. But the first debate, that of ITV chaired by Julia Etchingham, was a relative highlight for him. An early poll said he had narrowly won, and Starmer subsequently admitted as much was not satisfied with his performance. The other big TV moments for the two leaders were Especially to the leaders of Sky Newson Special BBC Leaders Question Time and Sun TV Q&A

If you’re looking for some of the topics that may come up, here’s our live blog from earlier, recapping all the political events of the day.

I’m afraid we can’t open comments tonight. Sorry about that. But if you want to mark something in front of me, it’s best to use X; I’ll see something addressed to @AndrewSparrow very quickly.