So where are we after the first couple of debates, and does it make a difference?
Tuesday’s Sunak/Starmer debate was entertaining, as was tonight’s feisty 7 party panel, but did anyone make a breakthrough?
So after the first two debates, who’s come out on top? As I pointed out recently, for the Conservatives to have any chance, they need something spectacular to happen. They consistently lag more than 20 points behind Labour, and with Nigel Farage joining the race for the Reform Party, they’ve been losing even more support. That means either the Tories somehow do incredibly well in the next few weeks or, more likely, Labour screws up big time. From what we saw from the finger pointing and raised voices between Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner and the Conservative’s Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt(shown below), there was certainly no lack of effort.
Let’s start with what happened in the debate on Tuesday between Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer hosted by ITV, available on YouTube.
They started the debate by talking about one of the major issues effecting the UK, the cost of living. While Starmer said he was the leader for change, Sunak stressed that he was the only one who had a plan. Where Sunak did well, right from the beginning was his warning that if Labour won, every British family would have to pay £2000 more per year. While Starmer hit back with many good points, like the fact that the Tories have raised taxes 26 times and Britain has the highest taxes for 70 years, he didn’t dismiss the £2000 claim for more than 35 minutes. Every time Sunak spoke, he repeated the £2000 tax increase claim while Starmer ignored it. Finally, after the break, Starmer said the claim was nonsense. But why wait so long? On that front, Sunak scored a win.
However, on the NHS, Starmer won, particularly when he noted that Sunak’s claim about smaller waiting lists didn’t add up. Starmer joked that he thought Sunak “was good at maths” yet the waiting lists have gone up form 7.2 million to 7.5 million. Sunak also implied that education and the economy were improving, whereas Starmer suggested that both had gone disastrously wrong. But probably the biggest problem for Sunak was on the issue of young people. When he mentioned his new National Service policy, it drew loud reactions from a clearly unimpressed audience. And this is where Sunak is in trouble. He came up with this policy just after he announced the election and it has gone down like a lead balloon. So all in all, I’d call it a draw.
So who was the best out of the 7 party members on show last night? Besides the two main parties, we had political heavyweight Nigel Farage of Reform, Stephen Flynn of the Scottish National Party, the Lib Dems’ Daisy Cooper, Carla Danyer of the Greens and the Welsh Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorweth. There was already plenty of drama before the debate with Rishi Sunak spending the whole day apologising for leaving the D-Day commemorations early. I’d say that between Labour’s Rayner and the Conservatives Mordaunt it was a draw. There were times when they forgot that the other 5 guests were in the room! Strikingly, I think all the smaller parties achieved what they wanted to for their target audience. I was impressed with Flynn’s honesty, particularly when he emotionally talked about how much the NHS had helped through his physical disabilities. He also seemed like the only leader brave enough to talk about Brexit. It was heartening, too, to see both him, Danyer and ap Iorweth talk so positively about immigrants, who have been unfairly stigmatised by many politicians out of convenience. One of those politicians who is not so immigrant-friendly, Nigel Farage was his usual charismatic and predictable self, which is bad news for the Conservatives. Farage is, of course, famous as an architect of Brexit, and a very divisive figure. He hit out a lot at the main two parties, with some success. Strikingly, I didn’t find Daisy Cooper to be that compelling, but she still held her own. And that’s all the Lib Dems will need to win back a lot of Conservative seats in the southwest of England.
So, after 2 rounds, the gloves are clearly off in this election fight. The problem for the Conservatives is they don’t just need a knockout blow. They need their opponents to jump out of the ring and do something crazy. And that’s not happening here so far. Sunak did well against Starmer, and Mordaunt looked solid against Rayner, but these contests were still draws. And even then, I have to question just how effective these debates are. Since the election was announced, the Conservatives have already had 2 unforced errors. First, they announced compulsory National Service. Then Sunak insulted British veterans on D-Day by leaving early. Actions speak louder than words. And when they do, no debates will save them.
I’d love to know what you think. Who do you feel came out on top? Have the debates been good or depressing? Feel free to write in the comments below.
