Election latest: Rishi Sunak questioned on 'catalogue of broken promises' - as Sir Keir Starmer likened to 'political robot' (2024)

By Faye Brown, political reporter

I've just been catching up with members of the audience to get their views on tonight's event.

Jackie Weavill, who shouted out at Mr Sunak during his questioning on the NHS, said she felt compelled to take him to task as his comments about investing into NHS hubs was not the reality she is seeing on the ground.

The NHS quality governance manager says her whole family works for the NHS and she's sees every day the problems it is facing.

She says there are "nursing shortages, staff are sick, they're mentally at their wits end, fighting battles every day, doctors especially the young ones they really get hammered".

She says Rishi Sunak thinks "it's going to be sunshines and roses, it might be for the big cities but not it's not here".

Even so she's a "Conservative through and through" and will vote for Rishi at the election out of her loyalty to the party and because she "doesn't trust Labour".

"They left areas like this destitute when they were last in government" she says.

But in true northern style she does not mince her words when asked what her message would be to Rishi Sunak.

"Pick something and do it. Don't fanny around, say what you are going to do and do it.

"Step up and stick to you guns."

No wonder Rishi Sunak wanted a head-to-head debate with Sir Keir Starmer. After being credited with a narrow win in last week's ITV debate, here he came off second best.

The prime minister was flat under tough interrogation by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby. And he found the audience was hostile towards him on the NHS, the economy and even on immigration.

From the outset, Sir Keir clearly realised he needed to raise his game after last week, when he was too sluggish in challenging or rebutting Mr Sunak's £2,000 Labour tax grab allegation.

And by the time the 90-minute programme came to an end, Mr Sunak looked deflated by the audience criticism and almost looked as if he couldn't wait for it to end.

Mr Sunak even stumbled into a blunder that will reinforce the claim by his critics that this millionaire prime minister is out of touch.

When a father asked about his daughter's struggle to buy a house, he talked about a house costing £425,000.

A Rightmove search for Grimsby reveals out of 914 properties currently listed for sale in the town, only 13 are on for £425,000 or more. His political opponents will seize on that.

And after his pummelling on tax last week, Sir Keir wasted no time hitting back, declaring he'd take no lectures from the Tories on the subject.

Mr Sunak, on the other hand, was flat - the D-Day fiasco appears to have damaged the PM's confidence.

And so Sir Keir leaves Grimsby for Labour's manifesto launch in the morning in good heart, with three weeks until polling day for the Tories to turn things around.

Sir Keir even said at one point: "The first day we get into government."

Beth Rigby instantly picked him up his momentary lapse. He just smiled.

After the questions come to an end, our presenter Sarah-Jane Mee asks for a show of hands in the audience if they had changed their minds.

Only three hands went up.

Sarah-Jane wants to get to the bottom of why they've had a change of heart, so heads into the audience to ask.

One voter says: "I came into this thinking I preferred Starmer, Sunak was a smoother debater, but at the end of it I would vote for neither.

"I didn't like either of the responses I got tonight so I'll be looking at the other parties."

Another says he has been a lifelong Conservative supporter but "Rishi Sunak looked like a defeated man with unoriginal ideas".

"It was difficult to watch and hear as Conservative Party voter," he says.

The final audience member says he voted Conservative in the last election and voted for Brexit.

However Rishi Sunak looked "unprepared", he says.

Sky's leaders event - TheBattle For Number 10 - has ended, and what an evening we've had.

Both Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak had plenty of time to get their points across and covered a huge range of topics.

But did either man do enough to convince you to vote for them on 4 July?

If you didn't manage to catch either leader answer questions from political editor Beth Rigby or tonight'slive audience in Grimsby, read on to see the key points.

Sir Keir Starmer

• "It must be country first" - The Labour leader started the event by defending his history of U-turns, including on Jeremy Corbyn and a second EU referendum, saying he is putting the country ahead of his party, dragging Labour "back into the service of working people";

• Sir Keir was punchier on questions of tax than he was in last week's debate and got the first big round of applause from the live audience after attacking the Tories on this issue. He said: "the Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises";

• Beth Rigby got a big clap when she pointed out that just because Sir Keir ruled outa rise in VAT, national insurance and income tax, there are still other taxes he could raise such as fuel duty or council tax;

• Asked what he fears most about becoming PM, the Labour leader said he's worried about the impact it'll have on his family, including his children aged 16 and 13;

• We then moved to the audience questions and Sir Keir was firm when he said he's prepared to roll up his sleeves, "get in the room and settle this dispute" with doctors over pay;

• Another audience member asked the Labour leader on his plan to levy VAT on private school fees. Sir Keir said he has "nothing against"private schools but there are "too many" state school students not getting the best education possible;

• Sir Keir appeared slightly taken aback when told he seems "like a political robot" before saying he has had a "constant theme" in his life of trying to serve the public.

Rishi Sunak

• "It hasn't been an easy 18 months" - Things started on the defensive for the PM as he was asked what's gone so wrong for the Tories. Mr Sunak said he'll keep fighting until the last day of the election in response;

• He was then cornered over his early exit from the 80th D-Day anniversary events and he sounded contrite when he asked for forgiveness.The audience seemed in an unforgiving mood;

• "We need to have somewhere safe to remove them" - the PM was grilled on his Rwanda policy next but refused to put a number on how many people would be put on flights. There was a round of applause when he answered on stopping the boats, though;

• "You were Dishy Rishi!" - Beth Rigby finished her grilling of the PM by asking him to tell the audience one thing they might not know about him. He said he's not as healthy as he appears and has a real sweet tooth. Haribo and Twix are apparently his favourites;

• The first question from the audience was on housing and Sunak talks about buying a house costing £425,000. There were groans from the audience, many of whom agreed that a house that price is out of their reach;

• NHS worker Hamzah told Rishi Sunak he had seen “the chronic effect" of underfunding in the NHS. The PM replied by saying the government is "investing record amounts" and that the Conservatives are "recruiting and training more staff and nurses than we ever have";

• Mr Sunak was pushed on trust, with his D-Day gaffe and the COVID-19 parties in Downing Street both mentioned. Sunak said "trust takes time to rebuild", which didn't win him any applause;

• The PM said he is "incredibly excited" for his daughters to do national service in response to a question from William, a student from Grimsby. "I think it will be transformative for our country", he said.

We're getting the first reactions now in the spin room with Sophy Ridge, who has managed to get some time with Home Secretary James Cleverly and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.

Mr Cleverly says he was "genuinely shocked by Keir Starmer's first non-answer".

Beth Rigby had been questioning the Labour leader about whether he really believed it when he said previously that Jeremy Corbyn should be prime minister.

"He was being dishonest with the public, either then or now, we're not sure which," Mr Cleverly says.

Meanwhile, Mr Streeting's first reaction is that the audience showed people are "crying out for change".

Sophy then puts to the home secretary that Mr Sunak "looked slightly broken tonight".

Mr Cleverly replies: "He was willing to answer difficult questions, in stark contrast to Keir Starmer."

He says the Labour leader had given "incredibly long responses but no answers".

Sophy then says the hardest question for Sir Keir was an audience member saying "he was a bit like a robot, and he answered it a bit like a robot as well".

The shadow health secretary says that when the Labour leader spoke about his fears and his family, "that didn't come across as remotely robotic".

His answers to questions were "thoughtful", Mr Streeting says.

Almost two -thirds of voters think Sir Keir Starmer performed better than Rishi Sunak in Sky's leaders' event, according to a snap Sky News/YouGov poll.

It found that 36% of the 1,864 respondents said that Mr Sunak won.

But 64% gave the win to Sir Keir.

Sky's deputy political editor Sam Coates says "that will hurt for the Conservatives".

He says the prime minister appeared at times to be an "almost defeated figure" and that there were several moments where the audience appeared to be "slightly mocking" and "laughing at him".

You can read more details from the poll here:

ByFaye Brown, political reporter

The heckling has died down now as Sunak comes under scrutiny from the audience.

He's taken to task over his D-day gaffe and association with partygate and there's nods from the audience as he apologises - in fact the question asker even says she appreciates that the PM owned up to his mistake.

She makes the point that it will take a long time for him to rebuild trust and it seems that those around her agree through the sound of clap.

In fact, there's been lots of clapping throughout the night on questions about the Conservatives' record.

But Sunak does land a warm round of applause when he says that a vote for Reform UK is a vote for Keir Starmer.

His arguments on tax and the NHS might not have gone down so well but that's one blow that appeared to land at least with some people.

Rishi Sunak is getting a hard time from the audience during exchanges on the NHS.

But then it gets worse.

A former Tory activist attacks him on D-Day and the Queen left on her own at Philip's funeral during partygate.

The PM looks as though he can't wait for this to end.

He'll be happier in the final election clash with Sir Keir, in a few weeks' time, when it's head to head rather than questions from an interviewer and a pesky audience.

He comes to life, though, when a member of the audience asks about Reform UK.

He launches into his usual claim about a vote for Reform UK letting in Labour, but at last he’s more animated.

As the programme comes to an end, James Cleverly arrives in the spin room. He looks pretty glum. This has been tough for Rishi Sunak.

Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth, on the other hand, has a big smile on his face. Says it all.

Rishi Sunak says he is "incredibly excited" for his daughters to do national service.

He was responding to a question from William, a student from Grimsby, who asks why a young person today would believe the Conservative Party has their best interests at heart given Mr Sunak's national service announcement.

"I have two young girls. I'm incredibly excited for them to do it because I think it'll be transformative for our country," the prime minister says.

"It willprovide skills and opportunities for young people that will set them up for the rest of their lives,foster a culture of service in our society, bring people closer together and contribute to our long-term resilience and security."

Mr Sunak says that everywhere he has been people have been "really positively talking to me about it", including parents who are "excited about what it will do for their kids".

Another audience member introjects to ask whether young people will be criminalised if they say no.

"Of course not," the prime minister replies.

ByJoely Santa Cruz, data journalist

Hamza, an NHS worker, wanted to know how Rishi Sunak plans to deal with underfunding and staff shortages in the NHS.

He says he has personally experienced waiting for eight hours on a stretcher in his local A&E department while in pain.

He's not alone - waits over 12 hours used to be a rare or almost non-existent event in English hospitals.

In April 2024, there were 42,000 instances.