How is it possible that a seven-way debate between the main parties in this election was more civilised than the two-way stand-off between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak earlier this week? Tonight’s BBC debate was bizarrely better viewing. Sure, the party representatives interrupted one another, attacked each other, and flung about fake figures. But it was easier to follow.
Mordaunt did not defend or praise Rishi Sunak
It was also fascinating to see who attacked who. Penny Mordaunt largely pretended Nigel Farage didn’t exist, but interrupted Angela Rayner frequently. Farage – who was in much better humour and shape than the 2015 election and 2016 Brexit debates, which he largely sweated through – obviously went for the Conservatives the most, saying in his closing statement that this election wasn’t just about the government, but about who would be in opposition. Tory MPs listening to that will have heard a threat, given the Reform leader’s desire to take over their party when it is in the post-election defeat doldrums.
Everyone based their statements on the premise that Labour was going to win the election and that the Tories were doomed, and Mordaunt didn’t do that much to fight back, instead offering regular critiques of what she saw as being the key Labour policies. That included the dodgy £2,000 tax claim that Sunak made earlier in the week, as well as a memorable line that Labour GB Energy company stood for ‘Giant Bills’.
Farage took issue with Mordaunt’s claim about tax, saying the Tories claiming that they believed in lower taxes was ‘dishonesty on a breathtaking scale’. Rayner also said it was a lie, and that the Tories had put taxes up. That was another theme of everyone’s response: lies. Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper in particular accused the Tories of lying, but so did the other speakers.
The two nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru and the SNP – both wanted to accuse the Tories and Labour of being the same. Stephen Flynn, always impressive as SNP Westminster group leader, was crisp and clear as he spoke about his own experience of disability and later as he critiqued Labour’s energy policy and what it meant for Scotland. He glossed over the SNP’s own ambiguities over licences for oil and gas in the North Sea. Plaid Cymru’s Rhun Ap Iorwerth similarly accused the Tories and Labour of speaking the same language. Carla Denyer for the Greens had the knockout blow on this, though. In her closing statement, she said: ‘Angela Rayner said Keir Starmer had changed the Labour party. She’s right. He’s turned them into the Conservatives.’
Notably, though, Mordaunt did not defend or praise Rishi Sunak. The first question inevitably ended up being about D-Day, and she simply said that what had happened was ‘very wrong’, adding: ‘The Prime Minister has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans, but also to all of us because he was representing all of us. I’m from Portsmouth. I’ve also been defence secretary and my wish at the end of this week is that all of our veterans feel completely treasured.’
Both she and Rayner are class acts, and often benefit from their respective leaders’ misfortunes. Perhaps Mordaunt was quite happy to address the D-Day question early on because of this. But by the end, she seemed rather downbeat. The assumption shared across the room that the Tories are about to lose very badly seemed to be weighing on her.
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