Tories challenge Starmer to a record six TV debates
The Tory election campaign is challenging Sir Keir Starmer to a record six TV debates as they attempt to show Labour has no plan, The Telegraph can reveal.
A source close to Rishi Sunak has told The Telegraph that the Prime Minister is willing to debate the Labour leader every week of the campaign.
That would amount to six debates, which is more than any Prime Minister has agreed to since TV debates were first introduced in 2010.
Members of the Prime Minister’s inner circle are now trying to organise the first TV debate for next week after announcing the surprise general election on July 4.
A source close to Mr Sunak told The Telegraph: “Rishi Sunak is up for debating Keir Starmer as many times as he likes.
“And if Starmer doesn’t want to do it, what is he hiding? If he has all these great plans, why doesn’t he come out and say what he wants to do?”
On how many debates Mr Sunak would be willing to have with Sir Keir, the source added: “We will do as many as we can get. We will do one every week if he wants.”
Specifics yet to be determined
Both Sir Keir, the Labour leader, and Mr Sunak, the Conservative leader, have publicly said for months that they are willing to take part in TV election debates.
Back in January, Sir Keir was asked if he would “duck” debates, as was being speculated at the time.
The Labour leader responded: “Well, that report is just nonsense. Look, I’ve been saying ‘Bring it on’ for a very, very long time. I’m happy to debate any time.”
The remark has been seized on by the Tories on Thursday as they seek to get Sir Keir locked into as many election debates as possible.
The programs have become a fixture of general election campaigns ever since 2010, when then Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s strong first performance triggered a surge in support for his party dubbed “Cleggmania”. However, one-on-one, head-to-head debates are rare.
The specifics of what debates will happen and when in this year’s campaign are yet to be locked in, with provisional discussions with broadcasters held but nothing firm agreed.
The UEFA Euro 2024 football tournament, which sees England among the favourites to win, is a complicating factor. It runs from June 14 to July 14, with televised matches almost every evening from June 14 to June 26 because it is the group stage of the competition.
That means there are a limited number of nights when election debates would not have to compete for an audience with international tournament football.
Figures involved in the discussions between broadcasters and political parties have long expected that a similar structure will be adopted as in the 2019 general election campaign.
That race saw two head-to-head debates between Boris Johnson, the Tory prime minister, and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, plus a string of other events involving smaller parties.
Number 10 insiders see the TV debates as a chance to change the dynamics of the election, with the Tories trailing Labour by 21 percentage points in the polls as the vote was called.
They believe that the Prime Minister can pin his Labour counterpart down on the economy, a policy area that they believe Mr Sunak has the upper hand given his past experience.
Mr Sunak spent years as a financier and steered the economy for more than two years as chancellor during Covid, whereas Sir Keir’s pre-politics career was as a lawyer.
Bids for election debates are being made by broadcasters individually rather than collectively, with a scramble behind the scenes likely in the coming days as they seek confirmations.
Nick Robinson, the BBC’s former political editor and host of the Today programme on Radio Four, is also due to hold interviews with all the party leaders, if they agree to do so.
