Sunak and Starmer face grilling in Grimsby during leaders event

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer faced a grilling in Grimsby last night in the latest of their televised election events.

They departed from the usual head-to-head format, instead undergoing a 20-minute interview followed by 25-minutes of questions from audience members.

Sir Keir went first, facing questions about trust issues, taxation and how he would tackle public services and inequality, while Mr Sunak was asked about his five pledge from 2023 and tax.

What did Sir Keir have to say?

During his interview the Labour leader admitted he never thought his party would win in 2019.

Sir Keir was asked several times whether he meant it when he said Jeremy Corbyn would make “a great prime minister”.

But he would only say that he did not think his party would win the last election, and campaigned for Labour in order to see “good colleagues” returned to Parliament.

Host Beth Rigby drew a laugh from the audience as she offered to “decode” Sir Keir’s comments on tax.

The Labour leader said he had “no plans” to review council tax, which Ms Rigby said was a politician’s phrase meaning they “might” do something.

But Sir Keir himself drew applause with an attack on the Conservative Party over the tax burden.

Asked what he feared most about the possibility of becoming prime minister, Sir Keir said he did not fear the big decisions but did fear the impact on his family.

He said he wanted his two teenage children to be able to “walk to school and have their own lives” as much as possible, even if he was in Number 10.

But he said he had no doubts that he was up to the top job.

A junior doctor who had been on strike challenged Sir Keir over how he would solve industrial action, and asked whether he would commit to restoring their pay in real terms to their 2010 levels.

That would involve a 35% pay rise, which Sir Keir said he did not think was affordable “because of the damage that’s been done to the economy”, but added a Labour government would negotiate a solution, accusing the Conservatives of failing to talk to junior doctors.

Sir Keir seemed briefly stumped after an audience member suggested he had become a “political robot” and asked how he would convince people to vote for him.

After a brief pause and a laugh from the audience, Sir Keir stressed a history of public service, particularly as director of public prosecutions, and said he was not “tribally political”.

Asked whether Sir Keir had convinced him, the audience member said: “You don’t seem to answer the question.”

What did Rishi Sunak have to say?

Rishi Sunak found himself being booed by the audience over an NHS pledge.

Ms Rigby asked Mr Sunak about the five pledges he made at the start of 2023 and whether he had achieved them.

Mr Sunak said inflation had now returned to normal after his pledge to halve it, prompting heckles from the audience.

He responded that he knew things had been hard, but he had tried to make them “a little bit easier”.

But it was on NHS waiting lists that his comments prompted the strongest audience reaction, with one audience member shouting “Boo” when he blamed industrial action for the lack of progress on reducing waiting lists.

It was inevitable that D-Day would come up during his part of the evening.

Mr Sunak repeated his apology for leaving D-Day commemorations early in order to record an interview with ITV.

Almost a week on from the commemorations, he said: “I was incredibly sad to have caused people hurt and upset, that was the last thing that I wanted to do. I hope people can find it in their hearts to forgive me.”

Suggesting there had been a series of broken promises over the past 14 years, Ms Rigby asked if Mr Sunak could understand why people thought he and his Cabinet deserved to receive their P45s.

The Prime Minister said he understood why people were frustrated after going through a tough period with Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.

Mr Sunak insisted people’s taxes would be cut in the next Parliament under a Conservative government, as Ms Rigby presented him with analysis suggesting the tax burden would actually rise.

The Prime Minister said he could not comment on analysis he had not seen, but added the tax burden was “too high”, prompting further heckles from the audience.

The audience’s first question to the Prime Minister was about the high mortgage rates first-time buyers might face.

Ian, a member of the audience with a 19-year-old daughter, asked him: “Why has your Government spoilt their hopes and dreams, and how do we know you won’t do it again?”

In response, Mr Sunak said “inflation is down” and repeated his promise to “abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers like your daughter buying homes up to £425,000”.

He also said “inflation is down”.

Amy, a former chair of a local Conservative Association, told the Prime Minister she was now an undecided voter and had been ashamed by Mr Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations and Partygate.

She added that he had “a long way to go” to rebuild trust in politics and his party.

He apologised for leaving the D-Day commemorations again, and for breaking the rules during Partygate, adding: “Trust takes time to rebuild through actions”.

During a discussion about national service, an audience member asked whether young people would be “set up for life with criminal records” if they did not do national service.

The Prime Minister responded with a clear “no”, and suggested his party’s proposed royal commission would look at a range of incentives and sanctions.

How did they do?

The YouGov snap poll published less than half an hour after the programme finished scored the performances as 64% for Sir Keir Starmer and 36% for Rishi Sunak.

Hear the latest news on Clyde 1 on FM, DAB, smart speaker or the Rayo app.