As many as eight million people are expected to tune into tonight’s BBC Brexit debate, where Boris Johnson, Sadiq Khan and Ruth Davidson will battle it out in their final attempt to win over voters ahead of the referendum. The last time Boris appeared in a TV debate, Remain’s ‘Operation batter Boris’ was mobilised in a misguided attempt to discredit the former Mayor of London. So can we expect more of the same tonight? On today’s Coffee House Shots, James Forsyth tells Fraser Nelson:
‘Ruth Davidson is a fierce debater. She is combative, she goes for people. It would be very surprising if she didn’t go for Boris. The one caution I would say is that there are senior figures in the ‘Remain’ campaign who accept that going for Boris as often as they did in the last debate didn’t actually work for them’.
The BBC debate kicks off tonight at 8pm, and you’ll be able to follow every word on our Spectator live blog later. But today hasn’t all been about the build-up to the televised showdown. This afternoon, the Prime Minister took to his podium in Downing Street to deliver an apparently impromptu speech, in which he declared that ‘Brits don’t quit’. On the podcast, Isabel Hardman says:
‘This was quite strange anyway because he didn’t actually say anything new. The format looked as though he was about to announce something but really he just announced he wanted Britain to stay in the EU. What was even stranger about it was that we are now in the period of purdah, where Government buildings aren’t really supposed to be used for campaigning purposes. Vote Leave have said they are not going to fight this because he didn’t say anything new.’
To listen to the podcast, use the Soundcloud player above. From now until the day of the EU referendum on June 23rd, Coffee House shots will be releasing a special edition podcast each day delivering a round-up of the day’s events. Join Isabel Hardman, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth as they discuss the lead-up to the referendum. Subscribe with iTunes here or click here for our RSS feed.
Comments