UK election debate: what are Sunak’s and Starmer’s

The PM will try to move the focus off the Tories’ record while his opponent attacks them over the economy and the NHS

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will go head to head for the first time in this election campaign on Tuesday. Both leaders have spent hours preparing for the hour-long ITV debate, which will kick off at 9pm and is being moderated by Julie Etchingham.

TV debates are a recent feature of UK elections. The first one took place in 2010 and was a breakthrough moment for Nick Clegg, with the Liberal Democrats shooting up by 14 percentage points in the polls the next day.