Who won the ITV election debate? Tell us what you think

Tonight’s ITV debate saw Penny Mordaunt, Angela Rayner and Nigel Farage face off for a second time in a lively seven-party debate which began only minutes after news broke that Reform UK has overtaken the Conservatives in an opinion poll for the first time. Here, The Telegraph's writers give their verdicts on who performed best.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

Nigel Farage mentioned Reform overtaking the Conservatives in the polls several times this evening - and here's that poll:

Another poll today shows the Tories polling worse now than under failed prime minister Liz Truss.

Penny Mordaunt, Angela Rayner and Nigel Farage were once again among the faces in the second seven-party debate of the campaign

Julie Etchingham, hosted the debate with tax, immigration and the health service among the key topics.

Read the full story from The Telegraph.

The debate audience laughed as Penny Mordaunt claimed the prime minister's record should reassure people.

As with the other debates, candidates shouting and talking over other candidates was widely mentioned on social media.

Rhun ap Iorwerth urged people to stand up for their communities and said it was high time the Tories were kicked out of power.

Nigel Farage boasted that he was not using an autocue and had cone out of retirement. He said he had the courage to "take on the mob" and urged people to vote for his action on borders and business.

"Unlike these others. I don’t need a script, I’ve come out of retirement with passion in my heart, Britain is broken," he said.

"For democracy to work the government needs an opposition. Ed Davey won’t do it, he agrees with most of Labour’s policies. Rishi Sunak won’t do it - he’ll probably be in California anyway. I have the courage to take on the mob."

Stephen Flynn said there was little hope and optimism and accused Labour of maintaining the status quo. He said there must be action on the NHS, and asked people in Scotland to vote to put Scotland's future first.

Angela Rayner said a vote for Labour was a vote to end the chaos of the Conservatives. She said NHS waiting times would reduce and bolster neighbourhood security and UK borders.

Daisy Cooper said the country was crying out for change. "nothing works," she said. "We will fix the NHS and social care, tackle the cost of living crisis and stop filthy raw sewage being dumped in our rivers and seas."

She added that the Liberal Democrats were the best chance of beating the Tories.

Penny Mordaunt said Angela Rayner had proved Labour would put up taxes.

"The lesson of the last few years is that when Labour are in charge unemployment rises and tax rises," she said adding that people's pensions and homes would be taxed and bills would be higher.

Making her closing statement, Carla Denyer said Labour would form the next government but questioned whether they were offering real change. "We deserve better," she said. "Green MPs will never stop defending our future."

Daisy Cooper said the Lib Dems would devolve power to local communities.

Angela Rayner said Labour had been upfront about what they could and could not afford.

Penny Mordaunt said people need to be honest about their manifestos and said the Tories were the only party that promised to cut taxes.

Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Conservatives should be honest about higher thresholds meaning people paid more tax.

Carla Denyer said people had lost faith in politicians because hundreds of MPs were safe in their seats. She said the Greens would change to a fairer voting system.

Stephen Flynn said you should vote for the politician who would make things better. He said the Westminster system was broken and urged people to hold their politicians to high standards.

Nigel Farage said the voting system needed to change and the House of Lords was an 'abomination' and said there should be more refere

Daisy Cooper asked Penny Mordaunt how people could trust the Tories on the NHS following broken promises on increasing GP numbers.

Mordaunt said the Tories had met many of their commitments and once again questioned Labour's pledge not to raise taxes.

Stephen Flynn asked about Gaza and how long it took to back a ceasefire. He asked Angela Rayner whether labour would commit to stopping arms sales to Israel.

Rayner said Labour would comply with international law and ask for advice on arms sales.

Angela Rayner asked Penny Mordaunt whether she would allow Nigel Farage into the Tory Party.

She said: "I am a Brexiter... I back business... I believe in rewarding personal responsibility." But added that she would not let Farage in as he was giving votes to Labour, who would tax people a lot.

Rayner responded that the Tories had put up taxes.

The panel are now asking questions of one another.

Green co-leader Carla Denyer asked Angela Rayner which of Labour's U-turns she was most proud of.

Tory Penny Mordaunt asked Angela Rayner if she would rule out raising taxes. Rayner said there was nothing in the manifesto that suggested they would raise tax.

Nigel Farage asked Penny Mordaunt about previous manifestos that suggested the Tories would reduce net migration - asking why anyone should believe the Tories on migration.

"Because of the record of this prime minister," she replied, prompting a big laugh from the audience. "We will give parliament the chance to set an annual cap on family and work visas. That is what we are offering. That is why you can have confidence those numbers will come down. Nigel is a Labour enabler. No cap, no target and no plan."

Farage responded: "Penny I dont believe a single word you say. We are now ahead of you in the national polls. A vote for you is now a vote for Labour."

Angela Rayner was pressed on child poverty by Stephen Flynn and Rhun ap Iorwerth, who said millions of children could be lifted out of poverty with the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

Nigel Farage said he would back lifting the two-child benefit cap, prompting Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth to ask Angela Rayner why Labour was still in favour of keeping the policy while Reform would scrap it.

Penny Mordaunt said people needed to be able to take home more of their money and said the Tories would keep taxes low, while accusing Labour of planning to do the opposite.

Stephen Flynn said the Conservatives were the problem - citing the damage of Brexit, Liz Truss crashing the economy, and the mismanagement of energy resources as the reason bills has increased.

He added that the consensus in Westminster was for £18 billion of public cuts, directly challenging Angela Rayner on the issue.

The panel was asked by a woman who worked in housing why she was dealing with people who never thought they would be poor but were now using food banks and were at risk of homelessness.

Nigel Farage answered: "Because people are getting poorer.

"GDP has fallen for the last six consecutive quarters. The big corporates and the big banks and a certain group of people have gotten richer exponentially and everyone else has fallen behind. We are back to the massive population explosion. We have to build more houses and take the poorer people out of tax."

Asked whether they would join the EU, Rayner said Labour would not, prompting Stephen Flynn to mutter "shameful".

Penny Mordaunt answered: "No and a Labour govt will take your back in."

Carla Denyer said: "Yes when the time is right."

Nigel Farage said: "No. We're badly governed but at least they’re our mistakes and nobody else’s."

Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt clashed once again during the debate.

Answering the question on migration, Nigel Farage said: "What are they gonna do about it? They are lying to you.

He was interrupted by Stephen Flynn who said: "Says you, come on."

Farage insisted he had "always told the truth," prompting a laugh from the audience.

Stephen Flynn said: "When Nigel Farage tells you migrants are making you poorer, don’t believe him", adding that the bigger problem for the country's economy was Brexit.

"You know what makes it worse, the LAbour party backed Brexit, as they did in their manifesto today," he added. "Shameful."

Nigel Farage said "Labour’s six points didn’t mention the single most important issue - the population explosion caused directly by migration.

"We voted to reduce the numbers coming in. We need to bring net migration to zero. One in 30 people walking on the street out there has come in the last two years alone. We have to have a freeze on the total numbers coming in."

He was accused by Plaid Cymru's Rhun ap Iorwerth of going on a "dog-whistle tour".

Christine asked the parties what their thoughts were on migration - balancing the need for foreign workers with stresses on the system

The studio audience laughed as Mordaunt claimed the UK's education system was 'world class'.

Angela Rayner bit back at the claim Labour was being 'timid'.

Penny Mordaunt said Labour had a £38 billion 'black hole' in its manifesto and said the party would have to put up taxes to fund its plan.

Stephen Flynn said Labour would have to make cuts from the NHS to afford its plan.

Angela Rayner disagreed with both comments and said Labour's plan would come from growing the economy. "At the moment we’ve had flat growth and really poor growth in this country. What we are gonna do is have a growth strategy, a skills strategy. We can’t tax our way out of this."

The Green Party would tax millionaires and billionaires to fund public services, Carla Denyer said, prompting Nigel Farage to interrupt and claim there would be a brain drain.

Denyer said the changes in the non-dom status had not changed the amount of people leaving the country. She said: "When it comes to tax, the Conservatives have taken the decision to tax ordinary people and struggling families."

Penny Mordaunt said people just wanted results. She said we should listen to police officers, healthcare professionals and teachers and keep political dogma out of the discussion.

Angela Rayner denied the door would be held open for privatisation, instead saying Wes Streeting would use the private sector to bring down waiting lists.

"Wes Streeting has said in order to bring waiting list down, we use up capacity in the private sector. It will always be a publicly owned NHS under Labour," she stressed.

Labour's Angela Rayner said the NHS would remain a public service under Labour, adding that the party would also fix social care and add more teachers to fix the education system.

Daisy Cooper, for the Liberal Democrats, said she had heard the question about public services time and again and said their manifesto was one to save the NHS and social care

She said: "I hear from people all over the country. They’re working, they’re striving. When they go to use the NHS or anything else, they’re broken. Our manifesto is a manifesto to save the NHS. We will fix the dental crisis."

Stephen Flynn said he would not be standing here if it wasn't for the NHS, and said that Labour would cut spending on the NHS.

Nigel Farage said the UK was now spending 11% of 'the national cake' for worse returns. He suggested there should be a system like France.

He said: "The NHS has two fundamental problems, case loads up by 43%. All of our services are under pressure because the population is increasing. We need to look at countries like France who spend exactly the same amount of money but pay more into an insurance fund."

An audience member described the NHS as being 'on its knees' and said many public services were not working - he asked the politicians whether they had any ideas to make services work again.

Penny Mordaunt said the NHS was "an act of faith" for the people of the UK, "since the Covid pandemic, the caseload that our healthcare professionals are dealing with has gone up 43%". She pledged to keep the NHS budget strong and said Labour had cut it three times in Wales.

Introducing themselves as the debate opened, Reform's Nigel Farage said his party was now the main opposition for Labour.

The Tories have hit their joint lowest standing in the weekly tracker poll as Nigel Farage’s Reform takes its biggest share yet and the aftermath of Rishi Sunak’s D-Day gaffe takes effect.

The prime minister apologised for skipping part of the commemorations to do an election interview for ITV last week but the first weekly tracker poll taken by Techne UK after the fiasco reveals the depth of public anger.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Labour is hoping for growth to support its plans - but it is not certain there will be any, says Sky News's Ed Conway.

The next general election debate will take place on Thursday 13 June, featuring leaders and representatives of the country’s main parties.

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer took part in a Sky News grilling on Wednesday night – but they departed from the head-to-head style of their first debate of the election campaign.

Read the full story from Yahoo News.

The battle for No 10 is well underway, as politicians trawl up and down the country to secure votes in the forthcoming general election.

In their attempts to appeal to voters in the run-up to 4 July, hopeful MPs are doing all they can to endear themselves to the public, with varying success.

Read the full story from The Independent.

Imagine a skyscraper: the tallest you've ever seen. Imagine it surrounded by other tall buildings - a cityscape of skyscrapers.

Now imagine a small semi-detached house standing in front of those buildings.

What you're picturing in your head is about the best visual approximation of the statistical difference between the fiscal plans from most of the manifestos this year - big, tall, towering financial commitments towards higher taxes and spending - and the Labour manifesto. That small semi-detached house is Labour's manifesto.

It is, at least in fiscal term, a tiddler.

Read the full story from Sky News.