Sky News leaders’ event LIVE: Keir Starmer heckled by audience as he is challenged over past remarks on Jeremy Corbyn ‘making a great Prime Minister’ and insists he has no ‘trust issues’ with voters

Mr Sunak is now sat on the stage with Beth Rigby and is immediatly asked ‘what is going wrong’ following disastrous poll ratings.

The Prime Minister said he understands it has been tough for people and is ‘excited’ to talk to them.

Also stresses he will campaign until the last day of the election.

Mr Starmer pauses awkwardly after a young voter asks him how he will encourage him to vote Labour and accuses him of becoming a ‘political robot’.

Answering the question, he says trying to help the public has been a ‘constant theme in my life’ which is why he got into politics.

Returning to the questioner, the man tells Starmer he doesn’t answer questions which is clapped by some in the audience.

Mr Starmer is now asked about Labour’s plan to charge VAT to private school fees from a parent who says he won’t be able to afford fee-paying education as a result of the plan.

The father says the children are the ones who lose out and that it will affect working people.

Mr Starmer earns a round of applause by saying every parent has aspirations for children whether they go to private school or not. He then says secondary schools are in urgent need of investment, citing maths lessons taught by PE teachers.

He said the money from ending the VAT tax break will be spent on recruiting 6,500 teachers for secondary school which again is warmly received by the audience.

Mr Starmer is now facing questions from a junior doctor called Jonathan who said he was among those striking over demands for more pay.

The Labour leader insists he would be ‘grown up’ and find a solution to end the NHS strikes but doesn’t commit to giving them a 35% pay rise as it’s not a negotiation.

At one point, the questioner suggests the Tories never wanted a deal with striking medics and Mr Starmer notes, ‘I think you may be right’.

Here’s some analysis from our political editor James Tapsfield

Keir Starmer was challenged on why he now condemns Jeremy Corbyn after arguing he would make a ‘great PM’ five years ago.

Sir Keir wriggled as he was asked on Sky News how people could ‘trust’ him, arguing that he only endorsed Mr Corbyn because he was ‘certain that we would lose’.

He also squirmed as he was pushed by presenter Beth Rigby on whether he would rule out all tax rises – sticking to his line that income tax, national insurance and VAT would not be touched.

He would not completely deny that council tax or fuel duty could increase.

As the campaign reaches the halfway point, the Labour leader and the PM will both be interrogated and face questions from a live studio audience in Grimsby.

Mr Starmer is now fielding questions from the audience.

A woman called Sharon asks him how he will help the most disadvantaged in Grimsby.

The Labour leader responds he wants to work with the people of Grimsby to develop a growth plan for the town and said he wants to work alongside people with ‘skin in the game’.

Sir Keir Starmer has told the audience his wife attempted to sway him away from a career in politics.

After being told voters don’t know much about him and eve find him ‘boring and stiff’ to which Mr Starmer replied ‘Cheers’, Mr Starmer said he believes in service and wanted to serve his country.

My wife was ringing adverts in the papers about well-paid lawyers’ jobs and I said ‘no, I want to serve my country’, which is why, at a late stage, I came into politics to serve my country.

Asked on Sky News if his wife was not keen on him to do politics, Sir Keir replied:

No she wasn’t at all, she thought it’d be far better to continue being a lawyer on a reasonable salary and not have all of the challenges that you get as a politician.

But I was clear in my mind, I wanted to come into politics because I wanted to serve my country.

Sir Keir Starmer said he would be happy to pay more income tax after he is questioned over his earnings.

Asked whether he would pay more after earning £128,000 and paying £44,000 in income tax last year, the Labour leader replied:

He then repeated his often used phrase of his father being a toolmaker which resulted in jeers from the audience who also moaned when he earlier mentioned his wife and mother worked for the NHS.

Sir Keir Starmer is now being asked whether he will raise taxes once in power as claimed by the Tories but earns applause from the audience when he turns it into an attack on the Conservatives

The Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises.

We’ve got the highest tax burden for 70 years and I think working people shouldn’t pay more tax. We will not raise their tax.

What we need to do is get the economy going – there’s a reason that taxes have gone up so much in recent years and that’s because the economy is flatlining.

The Labour leader earlier promised “a very forward looking manifesto”.

Sir Keir Starmer, asked if there was a trust issue with voters given his changes of position on various issues, told the Sky News leaders’ event in Grimsby:

No because what I would say is this – I decided it must be country first so every decision after that I judged previous decisions, previous positions and I said ‘Is this truly country first, party second’; if the answer to that was ‘no’ then I changed the position and dragged my party back to the service of working people.

Pressed on his previous support for former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Keir said: ‘I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election.’

I did campaign for Labour, of course I did, I will openly say I campaigned for Labour, I wanted good colleagues to be returned into the Labour Party.

Sir Keir repeatedly said he was “certain” Labour would lose in 2019 when challenged over his support for Mr Corbyn.

Sir Keir Starmer is now taking questions from Sky News’ Political Editor Beth Rigby as the Battle for Number 10 gets under way.

The Labour leader is sat on a chair opposite Ms Rigby and is first asked about his support for Jeremy Corbyn and dumping left-wing policies.

He is asked how voters can trust what he has to say.

We’re just minutes away now so put the kettle on and get comfortable.

We will provide live updates throughout the event starting with Sir Keir Starmer.

Rishi Sunak has declared he will take over the Conservatives X account to respond to Sir Keir Starmer’s answers in the Sky News debate.

In a video, he told followers: ‘Look out for my tweets and obviously I’ll be up after that myself.’

We can now bring you pictures of the Prime Minister’s arrival at Grimsby Town Hall.

Mr Sunak will be questioned after Sir Keir Starmer.

Beth Rigby has said the Sky News format will allow Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer to have a ‘proper conversation’ with voters.

Hear her throughts before she questions both leaders.

We can now bring you the story of one of Rishi Sunak’s close parliamentary aides facing an investigation after putting a £100 bet on the election being held in July, just days before the PM announced the July 4 vote.

Craig Williams, the Prime Minister’s parliamentary private secretary, is being probed by the Gambling Commission over his 5-1 ‘flutter’ in May.

Read David Wilcock’s story here:

Let’s just remind you how the event will work tonight.

This was explained earlier by our deputy political editor David Wilcock:

The format sees the two leaders take it in turns to be grilled by political editor Beth Rigby and then face questions from the audience in Grimsby.

The area is part of the Red Wall that Boris Johnson turned blue for the first time in 90 years in 2019, and it is expected to turn red again.

Mr Sunak will go second and will have to leave it to the presenters and the audience to hopefully ask Sir Keir some difficult questions about Labour’s plans for issues including raising taxes.

Rishi Sunak has now arrived at Grimsby Town Hall.

The event will start in less than half an hour.

Before we turn our attentions to tonight’s main political event in Grimsby, we can bring you a round-up from the campaign trail today.

To see what the Labour, Conservatives, SNP, and Lib Dems have been up to, see PA News Agency’s video below:

Some news to bring you before the Sky News event…

One of Rishi Sunak’s parliamentary aides has pledged to co-operate with inquiries from the Gambling Commission after he “put a flutter” on when the General Election would take place.

Craig Williams (pictured below), who served as the Prime Minister’s parliamentary private secretary and is the Conservative candidate for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, wrote on social media site X:

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 through how it looks.

The Guardian reported Mr Williams placed a £100 bet on a July election just days before Mr Sunak named the date as July 4.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said:

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.

Home Secretary James Cleverly has been pictured arriving at Grimsby Town Hall where he will support Mr Sunak.

Mr Cleverly will be in the Sky News ‘spin room’ where Labour and Conservative politicians will speak to media before and after the event.

Reform UK’s chairman Richard Tice has said Reform UK could overtake the Conservatives in the polls ‘this time next week’ after some put the party just one point behind.

Mr Tice said the polls showed people were throwing their support behind Nigel Farage and that there could be ‘crossover’ – when Tories fall below Reform – before July 4.

It comes after one YouGov poll commissioned by Sky News showed Reform just a single point behind the Conservatives.

Speaking about tonight’s event, Mr Tice predicted neither Mr Sunak or Mr Starmer will win the debate, adding he thought viewers ‘may nod off’

The Labour leader is now in the building after arriving at Grimsby Town Hall for tonight’s Sky News leaders’ event.

Labour are now 1/50 to win the most seats at the general elections while the Tories have just a 2% chance of securing a majority, according to Betfair.

Punters have wagered around £6 million already ahead of tonight’s Sky News event with the Tories desperate to change the narrative and narrow the polls.

Betfair Spokesperson, Sam Rosbottom said:

Sunak’s Conservatives continue to trail in the betting markets, while Starmer’s Labour notch up records. Labour are odds-on at 1/50 on the Betfair Exchange to win the most seats at the General Election, with the conservatives at 59/1.

Labour’s odds of both winning most seats, and of forming a Labour majority government are the shortest they have ever been, with a Labour majority government now 1/18.

Punters are also backing a huge number of seat losses for the Conservatives – it’s odds-on at 2/15 that they will lose 201 seats or more.

Rishi Sunak is expected to hammer home his tax-cutting plans on the Sky News programme this evening, after unveiling the Conservative manifesto yesterday.

If he stays in power, the Prime Minister has promised to oversee another 2p cut to National Insurance to reduce the tax to 6 per cent by April 2027.

Mr Sunak also pledged that NICs will be abolished altogether for four million self-employed over the next Parliament, as part of his £17billion of tax cuts.

With regards to immigration, Rishi Sunak vowed to ‘halve migration’ and then reduce the number ‘every single year’ if the Conservatives are re-elected.

For Labour, Jon Ashworth said he expected Sir Keir Starmer will emphasise he has changed the party from the Jeremy Corbyn years and talk up plans to rebuild the NHS and recruit more teachers.

Labour’s manifesto will be released tomorrow.

Dozens of readers have already commented on our live coverage as wait for the Sky News leaders’ special event involving Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

Here’s a flavour of some of the comments:

Both parties promising the world ,yet IF Manifestos where legally binding .IF promises where fulfilled ,IF both parties had listened to the country, , there would be no need for the Reform Party.

Possibly the two most boring individuals and it is all the fault of their television campaigns.

Sunak must be so excited to be on Sky. I hear that as a boy there was nothing he wanted more than Sky TV. A real rags to riches story.

Not much point grilling them because the majority of politicians/parties either U turn on their promises or we get a watered down version.

What I’d really really like is that manifesto “promises” should be legally binding. If a party doesn’t genuinely a least make their best effort to live up to what they say then the contract between voters and them is null and void so an election has to happen.

That would stop them promising XYZ just to get elected when they know full well they can not deliver.

They wont be grilled by ordinary voters at all. They will have select questions put before them, by a carefully vetted audience. Very probably rehearsed.

Read our political editor James Tapsfield’s preview as Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer brace for another crucial TV election grilling tonight as the PM desperately tries to shake off a series of gaffes.

As the campaign reaches the halfway point, the PM and his Labour opponent will both be interrogated on Sky News and face questions from a live studio audience.

Looking ahead to tonight leaders’ event and it’s fair to say the Prime Minister was dealt an early blow as new figures showed the UK economy was shown to have flatlined in April, according to latest figures.

The Office for National Statistics reported that growth domestic product (GDP) was flat during the month following growth of 0.4 per cent in March.

The data will present a headache for the Mr Sunak, who told voters the economy had ‘turned a corner’ after it emerged from recession in the second half of last year.

Tonight’s leaders’ event will see an audience at Grimsby Town Hall question the Prime Minister and the Labour leader hoping to succeed him.

So let’s take a closer look at the Lincolnshire town and the backdrop of the leaders’ special event

In 2019, Grimsby voted Conservative for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

Labour was ousted from the Great Grimsby seat after 74 years, with Tory Lia Nici defeating Melanie Onn by 7,331 votes.

Boundary changes has seen the constituency combine with Cleethorpes, where the Tories have been in power since 2010.

Cleethorpes has been a true bellweather seat, meaning it has backed the largest party in Westminster, since its formation in 1997.

But with support waning for the Tories locally the new Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes seat is shaping up to be a battleground ahead of next month’s vote.

Sky News’ first female political editor Beth Rigby will be tasked with skewering Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer with 20 minutes worth of questioning each tonight before the audience can have their turn.

So let’s take a closer look at Ms Rigby:

• Ms Rigby has worked for Sky News since 2016 and was promoted to Political Editor in 2019 replacing Adam Boulton.
• Before joining Sky News, she worked as a print journalist for nearly 20 years in the fields of finance and politics.
• She began her career on Fleet Street in 1998 when she joined the Financial Times as a trainee and went on to become Consumer Industries Editor in 2007.
• In 2010, she moved to the paper’s Westminster team and was appointed deputy political editor in 2012.
• In 2020, Ms Rigby was taken off air for three months after breaking lockdown rules to attend Kay Burley’s birthday bash.

As we build up to tonight’s debate on Sky News, let’s recap what else has been happening on the campaign trail.

MailOnline has covered the following stories today:

This is the moment Rishi Sunak insisted he still believes the Conservatives can win the general election.

The Prime Minister was speaking in Grimsby after one of his Cabinet ministers said a Labour ‘supermajority’ would be bad for the country.

The Tories remain 20 points behind in the polls.

Labour peer Baroness Ayesha Hazarika has said voters will want to see how the leaders handle themselves in the face of tough questioning and challenges from members of the public.

Speaking to Sky News, Baroness Hazarika said the event could prove pivotal for both men if there is a ‘gaffe’ or an ‘unpredictable moment’ tonight in Grimsby.

She said she thought it was unlikely to result in a dramatic shift in the polls but added it would be an ‘interesting’ night for people watching from home.

We can also bring you footage of Keir Starmer speaking about Labour’s manifesto, which will be launched tomorrow.

The Labour leader has reiterated there will be ‘no tax surprises’ and insisted it will set out plans for the party’s first steps in government if it wins the election.

The Labour leader also chose an educational setting for his campaigning in Grimsby ahead of tonight’s televised event.

Mr Starmer and Melanie Onn, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Great Grimsby, visited Grimsby Institute, a technical training college, to set out plans to bring down costs for drivers and neglect of local roads.

Mr Starmer has pledged to crack down on Britain’s pothole plague, saying he ‘loves driving’ and is as ‘irritated as everyone else’ at the state of the nation’s roads.

Labour laid out what it claimed was a fully costed’ election proposal using £320million from deferring the controversial Arundel A27 bypass in West Sussex as well as £8.3billion in reallocated HS2 funding announced by the government last year.

But Conservatives pointed out Labour’s previous support for ‘anti-driver’ measures including 20mph speed limits in Wales and the Ulez car tax in London, claiming the party had ‘declared war on motorists across Britain’.

Our political editor James Tapsfield reports a ‘pumped’ Rishi Sunak tried to get schoolchildren enthused about maths earlier today as he stepped up campaigning after another blunder.

The PM was greeted with silence after he asked a group of youngsters in Grimsby whether they were ‘excited about the exam’.

Read James’s report here:

MailOnline’s deputy political editor David Wilcock has provided the following analysis on a crucial night for both leaders, particularly Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak will be desperate for a positive performance on live television tonight to reignite a Tory election campaign that seems to lurch from bad to worse.

He will be under the spotlight, literally and figuratively, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK breathing down the party’s neck in the opinion polls and Labour pulling away.

After the Prime Minister launched what has been seen as an uninspiring, safety-first Tory manifesto yesterday, senior minister Grant Shapps suggested this morning that the main aim now is to avoid Labour winning a ‘supermajority’ on July 4.

Mr Sunak – who this afternoon insisted he has not abandoned thoughts of winning – will also doubtless face questions over his own personal mistakes. He has already faced serious criticism for leaving June 6 D-Day events in France early to conduct a TV interview.

To make matters worse, he used that ITV grilling to suggest he understood hardship because he did not have Sky TV as a child, because his parents ploughed all their money into his expensive private education.

Mr Sunak did well in a combative ITV head-to-head with Sir Keir Starmer in Manchester last week, with viewers feeling he was a narrow victor. But tonight’s Sky TV event offers him no chance to tear into his opponent as he did then.

The format sees the two leaders take it in turns to be grilled by political editor Beth Rigby and then face questions from the audience in Grimsby. The area is part of the Red Wall that Boris Johnson turned blue for the first time in 90 years in 2019, and it is expected to turn red again.

Mr Sunak will go second and will have to leave it to the presenters and the audience to hopefully ask Sir Keir some difficult questions about Labour’s plans for issues including raising taxes.

Our political correspondent Greg Heffer reports Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will face another TV grilling tonight with latest polls showing Labour with a 20-point lead over the Tories.

In a special Sky News leaders’ programme this evening, the Prime Minister will look to sell his tax-cutting plans to voters after unveiling the Conservative manifesto yesterday.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer face off on Sky News in the latest televised debate of this general election campaign.

Fresh from launching his manifesto yesterday at Silverstone racing circuit, Mr Sunak will be hoping for the polls to narrow with just three weeks until the country heads out to vote.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer will aim to convince voters he is the best person to take Britain forward.

We will bring you live updates throughout tonight’s debate plus news, reaction and analysis.

The Battle for Number 10 will be broadcast tonight on Sky News from 7pm to 10pm.