Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer in final TV showdown as PM desperately needs an election gamechanger

Rishi Sunak is going head-to-head with Sir Keir Starmer in a final TV showdown just days before the July 4 polling day.

The Prime Minister and Labour leader are due to take part in the the BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate in Nottingham on Wednesday evening.

Mr Sunak desperately needs a gamechanger to give the Tory stuttering election campaign some momentum, which has been rocked in recent days by the growing election date betting scandal.

The Conservatives are still trailing Labour by around 20 points, if not more, in the polls, with Reform UK eating into their vote after Nigel Farage’s U-turn to take over as leader.

The debate on Wednesday will be chaired by Mishal Husain.

She won praise earlier in the campaign for the way she oversaw a seven-way debate involving Mr Farage, Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn of the Scottish National Party, Carla Denyer of the Green Party and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru.

Key issues in the two-way debate on Wednesday could include the election betting storm, tax, immigration, leadership, schools, social care, as well as Britain’s ties with the European Union and Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

It will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 8.15pm-9.30pm and a signed version will be on the BBC News Channel from 8.15pm. You can also listen on BBC Radio 4 from 8.15pm.

Then, from 9.30pm-10pm, Laura Kuenssberg and Clive Myrie, the hosts of the BBC’s election night coverage, will present reaction and analysis live from the debate venue.

Mr Sunak was seen to have landed an early blow in the election campaign during an ITV live debate when he repeatedly accused Sir Keir of planning a £2,000 tax hit on millions of households across Britain if Labour wins power.

The Labour leader seemed caught off guard, surprisingly, by the Tory line of attack and failed to fully rebut the tax claim.

But the Tory £2,000 tax claim against Labour then started to unravel as it was undermined by the Treasury, independent fact checkers, and the UK’s statistics watchdog, with the latter rapping ministers for failing to make clear that the figure is over four years, not one.

TV debates rarely change the course of elections but they give the party leaders a chance to get their message over to millions of viewers across the country.