Sunak and Starmer slug out a stalemate

Tonight saw the penultimate TV exchange involving Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer. Both men took part in live-streamed interviews with the Sun’s political editor Harry Cole and a live studio audience, ten days prior to polling day. Sunak was up first and had a difficult balancing act in the 30-minute exchange, seeking to embrace the Tory successes of the past 14 years while distancing himself from its failures. ‘This election is about the future,’ he insisted at one point – moments after praising the coalition’s education reforms. Three times he repeated his seven-word defence that: ‘I’ve been Prime Minister for 18 months.’ It was a line which sounded plausible on migration, when he could claim to have cut legal numbers since coming to office. Yet on the NHS, Sunak was unable to address the case of a voter whose father recently died due to negligence in the health service.

Sir Keir Starmer in some ways got a more difficult ride from the audience.