EU referendum TV debate – Leave and Remain face off in ITV showdown

Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the ITV debate:

Welcome to Coffee House’s coverage of ITV’s EU referendum debate. Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stewart made the case for Brexit, and Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd argued for Britain to stay in the EU. Here’s our commentary from the debate, as well as all the audio and video highlights.

Here’s Isabel Hardman’s summary of the various speeches:

OUT:

• Boris Johnson: 7/10 – stayed calm under non stop personal onslaught. Still didn’t offer much of a detailed sense of what Brexit would look like.
• Gisela Stuart: 5/10 – struggled particularly on women’s rights and lacked oomph but helped the campaign with her repeated assertions that she is an immigrant which makes the ‘Little England’ line particularly hard to stick.
• Andrea Leadsom 8/10 – the most upbeat and serious of the Leave bunch. Also the most tedious on the ‘as a mother’ theme.

IN:

• Nicola Sturgeon: 6/10 – bouncy and aggressive as ever but she seemed rather too preoccupied with Scottish independence.