British opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak take part in BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, Britain.

Nottingham

British opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak participated in a televised debate hosted by the BBC in Nottingham. The debate addressed several key issues, including immigration, cost of living, post-Brexit trade, and political scandals. 

Rishi Sunak stated that his government has taken a firm stance on immigration, cautioning against the Labour Party’s policies. In response, Keir Starmer dismissed these claims as nonsense and emphasized the need for competence in governance. Analyst Javier Sahuria noted that this debate was crucial for both leaders to inspire public confidence, with Starmer currently outperforming Sunak on key issues.

The debate highlighted the challenges facing both leaders, with Sunak dealing with a series of scandals and Starmer needing to demonstrate stability. It remains uncertain whether this debate will significantly impact the election outcome.



Sunak and Starmer clash in final UK TV debate

This was a leaders debate in which leadership itself was very much in question. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has taken the Conservatives to a seemingly hopeless position in the polls. But opposition leader Keir Starmer of Labour has personal approval ratings very much on the underwhelming side. Are you two really the best we've got to be the next Prime Minister of our great country? I was joined by analyst Javier Sahuria to see whether either could start to inspire confidence in the British public. If Keir Starmer is your Prime Minister, all those illegal migrants will be out on our streets and that is the choice for you. Do not surrender our borders to the Labour Party. Steve, this is completely and utter nonsense. This is the most heated it's been, the question of immigration. Why is it a hot button? If 2019 was a Brexit election, this is an election of the cost of living and I would say to some extent immigration. I think that one of those issues where people think that the Conservative governments have not delivered quite the opposite, it's immigration, right? It means having the courage of your convictions, not changing your mind on every single position that you've taken. Sunak appeared more authoritative. What to do for the country. That's not what Keir Starmer is doing. While Starmer was more rambling. I expect the highest standards and that I'll take decisive action if they fall below the But that may not hurt him. Do you know what matters is an issue of competence. So what voters usually use rather than personal ratings is the issues of competence. Who is better to deal with economy, to deal with defence, human rights, immigration and so on. And in most of those issues, Keir Starmer is outperforming Rishi Sunak. Sunak's post-Brexit trade, betting scandals and cost of living were all threshed out. But it seemed the most important thing was to emerge from this debate unscathed. So far Sunak has been going from scandal to scandal to failure. So I think he needs to find a way to put a line under everything and try to save as much as he can for the last week of the campaign and try to kind of have a scandal-free week which seems kind of quite difficult. In the case of Starmer, it's quite the opposite. He needs to show stability and try not to commit any mistakes. One week to go, a third debate finished and probably no impact on the result. Paul Rees, Al Jazeera, London.

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