Sky News General Election Debate: Keir Starmer blasted by furious parent over one policy

Sir Keir Starmer did not display robotic behaviour when answering a question about whether he behaved like a “political robot”, Jonathan Ashworth said.

Asked about the brief pause Sir Keir took after being branded a “political robot” by an audience member, the shadow paymaster general told journalists in the post-broadcast spin room: “He had a bit of a smile on his face and he had a bit of a chuckle himself.

“That is not particularly robotic behaviour, that is human behaviour.”

Rishi Sunak warned voters that taxes and migration will rise under Labour as he faced a grilling at the hands of the public.

In a febrile televised debate, the Prime Minister set out July 24 as the date of the first deportation flight to Rwanda if he is returned to government.

Mr Sunak said: “If you’re someone who cares about cutting taxes, protecting pensions, an approach to net zero that prioritises cutting your bills, I’m the person that’s going to deliver for you, not Keir Starmer.

“Keir Starmer doesn’t have a plan on immigration, Keir Starmer is not going to cut your taxes... That’s the choice for you and everyone else thinking about it.”

Here are the major moment from tonight's debate...

- Sir Keir Starmer took to the stage first, taking 20 minutes of questions from Beth Rigby.

- She quizzed him on his endorsement of Corbyn when he was a member of the shadow cabinet as well as his tax plans.

- Trying to defend his time under Corbyn, he said he backed the staunch Left-winger because he "certain" his party would lose the 2019 General Election.

- Sir Keir clashed with a furious parent over his plans to scrap the VAT exemption for private schools.

- The Labour refused to commit to hiking junior doctors' pay.

- In a hilarious moment, Sir Keir was branded a "political robot" in a scathing attack from an audience member.

- When Mr Sunak sat in the hot seat, he was first asked about his decision to leave the D-Day commemorations early - a move he said was a "mistake".

- Later in the interview he admitted migration figures were "too high" and was asked why "anyone believe anything you say on immgiration?"

- Mr Sunak was also held to task over the five pledges he made when he took office.

- He pledged that flights to Rwanda would take off if he's elected on July 24.

- The Tory leader also told the audience "a vote for Reform is a vote to put Keir Starmer in Number 10".

Who do you think won the debate? Vote in our live poll here.

That's it from Grimsby!

Rishi Sunak has left the stage following 45 minutes of questions Beth Rigby and members of the audience.

Reaction to follow...

The Sky News audience’s first question to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was about the high mortgage rates first-time buyers might face.

Ian, a member of the audience with a 19-year-old daughter, asked him: “Why has your Government spoilt their hopes and dreams, and how do we know you won’t do it again?”

In response, Mr Sunak said “inflation is down” and repeated his promise to “abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers like your daughter buying homes up to £425,000”.

He also said “inflation is down”.

A member of the audience appeared to jump the queue, shouting out a question about Reform UK - the party led by Nigel Farage.

The question was not entirely audible, however Mr Sunak welcomed it, saying "a vote for Reform is a vote to put Keir Starmer in Number 10".

The PM was asked whether he thought the police were systemically racist.

Despite noting "discrimination has absolutely no place in out society", Mr Sunak refused to agree with the premise of the question.

The Labour leader was laughed at after trotting out his line that his father was a toolmaker.

The Tory X account has issued a withering assessment of the Labour leader's performance.

Rishi Sunak's interview with Beth Rigby has now finished.

The PM is now fielding questions from the audience...

The Prime Minister was grilled over the five pledges he made when he took office.

Mr Sunak said: “The most important priority was the first one, because when I got this job, inflation was at 11% and I think everyone knows the last few years have been difficult, the impact that was having on all your bills.”

He faced laughter when he said: “It (inflation) was always meant to come down over time.”

Mr Sunak also faced questions about rising NHS waiting lists, up to 7.54 million from the 7.21 million level when he made the pledge.

“We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked,” the Prime Minister said.

“That was something that I was keen to do, and it has proved more difficult for a number of reasons, obviously recovering from a pandemic is not easy,” he said.

He faced groans and boos when he said: “I think everyone knows the impact the industrial action has had, that’s why we haven’t made as much (progress).”

Sir Keir Starmer was left speechless when he was branded a "political robot" by an audience member during a live TV showdown tonight.

The audience member pressed the Labour leader on how he would convince him to vote for him during Sky News's The Battle For Number 10.

They said: "I admired how in touch you were with the public when you were a solicitor and became director of public prosecutions with the CPS.

"But over the last year I feel like you've fallen into more of a politician than a person I'd have voted for to run the country.

"You seem more like a political robot. How are you going to convince others like me to vote for you."

READ MORE HERE

The Prime Minister says he is "not making any bones" about immigration figures being "too high".

Beth Rigby asked Mr Sunak "why should anyone believe anything you say on immgiration?". The question was met by resounding applause.

Rishi Sunak said his decision to leave the D-Day commemoration ceremony was a "mistake".

He apologised for the "hurt" he caused veterans.

The PM left Normandy early to conduct a pre-recorded interview with ITV.

The Prime Minister is now taking questions from Beth Rigby...

A member of the audience dubbed the Labour leader a "political robot".

Struggling to answer, Sir Keir's pause was met with laughter from the audience.

An "average working parent" has taken the Labour leader to task over his plan to scrap the VAT exemption for private schools.

The father from London said "the rich" will still be able to send their kids to an independent school, but working and middle class parents will no longer be able to, if he introduces 20 percent VAT.

A junior doctor asks Sir Keir "how and when" he will put up his and his colleagues' pay.

The Labour leader refused to commit to a pay rise.

He said he would "get in the room and settle this dispute".

Sir Keir Starmer is now fielding audience questions...

The Labour leader says his only concern about being Prime Minister is for his children.

"The only thing that keeps me up at night is worrying about my children."

The Labour leader was met with applause from the audience after he said the "Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises".

He vowed there will be "no taxes rises for income tax, for national insurance, for VAT" if he becomes PM.

Audience members could be heard laughing at Sir Keir when Beth Rigby said he had dropped "six or seven" of the pledges he made before becoming Labour leader.

Sir Keir said "most" of the pledges "are still in place".

Starmer defends his backing for Jeremy Corbyn when he was leader of the Labour Party.

He justified backing Mr Corbyn by saying he was "certain" Labour would "lose the 2019 General Election".

The Labour leader has been accused of leaving a "catalogue of broken promises".

Sir Keir Starmer backed Jeremy Corbyn's leadership before expelling him.

He also backed a second referendum, but has since ruled it out.

Sir Keir Starmer is about to get grilled by Beth Rigby....

Former director of communications for Boris Johnson, Lee Cain, has said the Conservatives have no chance of winning the General Election.

He told Sky News: "I think in terms of winning this election, I think it's all over.

"I think we've seen from the 'don't give Keir a supermajority' line, they've accepted that."

The ex-comms chief said the election was now about retaining as much of the "core vote" as possible for the Tories.

The Labour leader arrived to a chorus of pro-Palestine chants.

"From the River to the Sea", a chant widely considered to be anti-semitic, could be heard as Sir Keir got out of his car.

"Free, free Palestine" was also audible.

The Prime Minister arrived after Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Mr Sunak was booed as he got out of his vehicle in Grimsby.

Sir Keir was also met with chants from pro-Palestine protesters.

Sky News Political Editor Beth Rigby will sit down with each leader for a 20-minute grilling.

Then, the audience will get 25 minutes with each man, to pose their own questions.

Proceedings kick off with Sir Keir Starmer in the hot seat, after an FA Cup-style draw yesterday.

The Labour leader has arrived in Grimsby for the Sky News 'Battle for Number 10' debate.

The Gambling Commission has launched an investigation into a £100 bet placed by Craig Williams, the prime minister’s parliamentary private secretary, on when the General Election would be held.

The Guardian reported that the bet was placed just three days before Rishi Sunak announced the election would be on July 4.

The newspaper claims Mr Williams' bet was on the month of polling day.

In a statement, Williams said: “I’ve been contacted by a journalist about Gambling Commission inquiries into one of my accounts and thought it best to be totally transparent.

“I put a flutter on the general election some weeks ago. This has resulted in some routine inquiries and I confirm I will fully cooperate with these.

“I don’t want it to be a distraction from the campaign, I should have thought how it looks.”

A Conservative party spokesperson added: “We are aware of contact between a Conservative candidate and the Gambling Commission.

“It is a personal matter for the individual in question. As the Gambling Commission is an independent body, it wouldn’t be proper to comment further, until any process is concluded.”

The bet was placed with Ladbrokes at 5/1, meaning Mr Williams would have won £500.

People milling about the capital were asked by an LBC reporter if they could identify the Prime Minister, the Labour leader, Reform UK leader and leader of the Lib Dems.

While some didn't know who any of them were, most identified Mr Sunak, Sir Keir and Mr Farage.

However, unfortunately for Sir Ed, most of those interviewed were none the wiser as to who he was.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he is confident his party can win Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Godalming and Ash seat in the General Election.

Speaking during a visit to a school Surrey, he told the PA news agency: “I’m very hopeful. What we’re seeing is many lifelong Conservatives switching to the Liberal Democrats.

“People like Jeremy Hunt are very much to blame for the mess of our economy.”

Sir Ed’s comments came after Mr Hunt told Bloomberg his seat could be won or lost by 1,500 votes or fewer.

The Godalming and Ash parliamentary seat is a key target for the Liberal Democrats who are aiming to demolish the Conservative ‘blue wall’ in southern England.

The Reform UK leader posted a video on X just after 2pm today, saying that "in those seats where we're ahead [of the Conservatives], it's a vote for Rishi's Tories that will let Labour in."

Mr Farage's remarks come after the Prime Minister claimed that a vote for Reform would hand Sir Keir Starmer the keys to number 10 and let Labour rule for a decade.

Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries has said that "it's over" for the Conservatives and says she's not "even sure why candidates are bothering to go out and deliver leaflets".

Speaking to Times Radio, she said: "

Conservative candidate Dame Andrea Jenkyns has defended using pictures of herself alongside Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on her election leaflet.

The larger photo of the pair was taken at Farage's 60th birthday party in April, and another smaller picture shows her alongside Farage again.

A spokesperson for Ms Jenkyns said she finds it "regrettable" a deal between the Tories and Reform was not agreed to before the election but that she is "standing for the Conservative Party" at this election.

The SNP and Labour are neck and neck in Scotland in Westminster voting, a poll suggests.

A survey by Ipsos for STV spoke to 1,150 people across the country between June 3 and 9 and found both parties level on 36%.

The SNP has dropped three points compared with the firm's last poll in January, while Labour has increased its vote by 4%.

The Conservatives sit on 13% while the Liberal Democrats and Scottish Greens are on 5% and 3% respectively - with all three dropping a single point since January.

Reform UK has increased its vote by one point to 4%, while Alex Salmond's Alba remains on 1%.

There are a total of 4,521 candidates in this election.

This is a record for a general election in the UK and is up 36% on the number that stood in the last poll in 2019, which was 3,320.

The previous record was 4,150 candidates, which was set at the 2010 election.

The biggest three, unsurprisingly, are the Conservatives (with 635 candidates), Labour (631) and the Liberal Democrats (630).

But in fourth place are the Greens, with 629 candidates (up from 497 in 2019) – their highest ever number.

There are also two brand new parties at this election: Reform UK (611 candidates) and the Workers Party of Britain (152).

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the Green Party’s manifesto proposals will come with a “real economic cost” and increase disincentives to work.

The IFS said the party’s proposal to restrict income tax relief on pension contributions would hit nurses and teachers.

Although its deputy director, Helen Miller, described some of the plans, such as closing loopholes within inheritance tax, as “sensible”.

She added: “While a recurrent wealth tax could raise revenue it would be tough to implement. Restricting upfront income tax relief on pension contributions would also be difficult to achieve – and would hit a lot of workers on not terribly high salaries – many nurses and teachers for example.

“Many of the measures would combine to increase disincentives to work and to invest. Accounting for the fact that we would expect potentially large responses to such a significant increase in taxes, it is unlikely that the measures would raise as much revenue as expected.

“And while some of the measures are targeted at the wealthy, the effects of the package would be much broader. Most obviously, it would be impossible to raise over £90 billion from taxing carbon emissions without the effect being felt by everyone.

“It is clear where the Green Party’s ambitions lie – a much bigger role for the state, better-funded public services and, of course, a swifter transition to net zero.

“It is unlikely that the specific tax-raising measures they propose to help achieve all this would raise the sorts of sums they claim – and certainly not without real economic cost.”

Here's a recap opf the Greens' manifesto policies on the environment, specifically green energy and transport.

Move a zero-carbon society as soon as possible, and more than a decade ahead of 2050.

Cancel recent fossil fuel licences and stop all new fossil fuel extraction projects.

Remove all oil and gas subsidies and phase out nuclear energy. renewables.

Impoise a frequent-flyer levy and ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train.

Finally, stopping the expansion of new airport capacity.

Rishi Sunak urged voters not to give Labour a "blank cheque" because "they're not telling people what they would do with it as he repeated his claim that the party's policies would result in a £2,000 tax hike.

Speaking to journalists on the campaign trail, the Prime Minister said: "The choice at the election is pretty clear because Labour are just going to put up your taxes.

"And what they're asking people for is a blank cheque.

"They're not telling people what they would do with it, how much it's going to cost them, but I can tell them it's going to cost them £2,094."

Rishi Sunak said he has "absolutely not" given up winning the General Election campaign after a Cabinet minister warned voters against handing Labour a "supermajority".

Asked by journalists on the campaign trail on Wednesday the change in tone from Defence Secretary Grant Shapps showed the Tories had conceded defeat, the Prime Minister said: "No absolutely not. What you saw yesterday is we've put a manifesto forward which has got a very clear set of tax cuts for the country, tax cuts at every stage of your life.

"Whether you're working or setting up a small business, tax cuts when you're trying to buy your first home, tax cut for pensioners, and tax cuts for families.

"And I'm really energised to now have a chance to put a very clear plan to the country and talk about all the things I want to do."

He added that the manifesto showed a "clear direction of travel" that the Tories would take if they win the election.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has issued a dramatic warning about his own seat as it risks being lost to the Liberal Democrats in fresh election hell for the Tories.

Speaking to Bloomberg this morning, he admitted the seat, South West Surrey, "is probably going to be won or lost by the Conservatives by 1,500 votes or fewer".

Polling aggregator Britain Elects predicts the seat will be taken by the Lib Dems with a swing of 14 percent, leaving them with an 8.3 percent majority over the Conservatives.

Nigel Farage has been offered extra security by the Home Office after having multiple objects thrown at him.

On Tuesday, the Reform UK leader had a cup and another object hurles at him while atop a battle bus in Barnsley.

This follow the famous milkshake incident that occurred last week outside a Wetherspoons in Clacton - his new constituency.

Labour and the Tories are having a "race to the bottom" on tax, Adrian Ramsay and Carla Denyer, co-leaders of the Green Party have said.

At the party's manifesto launch in Brighton, Denyer said: "Our manifesto is based on investing to mend broken Britain and offer real hope and real change."

Ramsay said: "Our manifesto is about the sort of country we want to live in, where we move beyond the politics of fear and distrust."

On the economy, Denyer said: "We would overhaul our tax system to make it fairer. At the heart of this would be a tax on the very richest, the top 1% of people requiring them to pay a bit more into the pot. From the Tories and Labour, we've been hearing a race to the bottom on tax.

"They think two pence off here and a penny off there will impress voters and they think that people won't cotton on that this means even more devastating cuts to public services like the NHS that we rely on every day."

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Ed Davey ended up submerged yet again, as his election campaign effort continues to be mainly focussed around having a fun day out.

He failed to walk across a tightrope at a watery assault course live on BBC News.

Nigel Farage has published a video saying that yesterday's rubble attack in Barnsley is 'symptomatic of where we are with our politics in this country - it's terrible".

He told a packed room of supporters in Yorkshire: "It is not nice or pleasant to be subjected to violence, but I will not surrender, I will not give into the mob, I will go on fighting!"

Josh Greally, 28, has been charged with using threatening behaviour towards Nigel Farage after objects were thrown at the Reform UK leader while he was campaigning in Barnsley, South Yorkshire Police has said.

Last night Mr Farage said he "will not surrender to the mob", but added it's "very difficult because I actually like going out meeting people".

This morning's GDP figures are bad news for the PM who promised to get the economy growing.

They show flat growth in April 2024, but 0.7% growth in the three months to April.

Production and construction were down by 0.9% and 1.4% respectively.

Reform's Richard Tice fumes: "Tories say 'the plan is working'".

"Reform UK is the only party with real growth proposals. Britain needs Reform."

Also making waves from tonight's ITV interview is a clip of Mr Sunak revealing the one thing he went without during his childhood.

Asked by Paul Brand how he stays in touch with struggling families when he's wealthier than the King, Mr Sunak said he "went without lots of things" growing up as his parents put everything into his education.

Asked what sorts of things, the PM replies: "All sorts of things I wanted as a kid that I couldn't have - famously Sky TV".

"That was something that we never had growing up."

Things get slightly quieter today, with a break from manifesto launches before Labour unveils theirs on Thursday.

Instead, all eyes are on this evening where two big televised moments are taking place.

First is Rishi Sunak's long-awaited ITV interview, which is already causing ripples after Mr Sunak complained that the D-Day event prior to recording had run over.

At the same 7pm slot on the BBC, Nick Robinson will grill both the leaders of Plaid Cymru and the SNP as part of his series of leaders' interviews.

Then at 7.30pm there will be a Sky News leaders showdown as Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are taken to task, though they won't face each other one-on-one as per ITV's offering last week.

Labour's Keir Starmer and Louise Haigh are also set to visit a college in Humberside.

Watch the clip below in full.

Responding, the LibDems have already said that it is "proof that Rishi Sunak simply didn't care enough to stay in Normandy".

"How he brushes this off is frankly insulting".

The ITV interview will be broadcast in full at 7pm tonight.

Welcome to Express.co.uk's General Election live blog.

We'll be bringing you all the latest from the campaign trail on Wednesday, June 12.

More to follow shortly.