Keir Starmer looked baffled by tonight’s questions. Rishi Sunak looked resigned. Separating the two candidates – having them face Beth Rigby and the audience, rather than each other – led to far more defensive performances: Starmer on tax, and Sunak on the Tory record. Both spent the majority of the time looking deeply uncomfortable.
Sunak did not have an easy ride. The audience, all warmed up by the Labour leader’s interview, was more likely to jump in and heckle. Asked questions about his ‘five promises’ made in January 2023 – only one of which he has made good on – Sunak tried to move the goalposts, insisting that those promises could not be solved ‘overnight’. Speaking specifically about bringing down the public debt (it’s kept rising these past 18 months), Sunak insisted ‘it was always meant to come down over time’. That’s a very different narrative to when Sunak asked the public to judge him on his record at the end of the year – last year – on debt, inflation, the economy, the NHS waitlists and immigration.
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