Election latest: Sunak told to 'come clean' over election date bets - as party leaders face live grilling from voters (2024)

Sir Ed is challenged on the media stunts he has performed during the election campaign.

He says that while the manifesto contains thought-through and serious proposals, politicians themselves shouldn't "take themselves too seriously".

"I think that's part of the problem in politics. People are really disillusioned," says the Lib Dem leader.

"Yes it has been to grab a bit of attention, but when I did fall off that paddleboard in Lake Windermere, the serious message was about the sewage problem."

Asked what the serious message behind his appearance on a rollercoaster was, he says "politics can be a rollercoaster ride and boy it was. There were some fun ones".

But using a slide in Somerset was to highlight the crisis in mental health for children, he said.

An audience member says the Liberal Democrats have a "credibility issue" because of its "broken promise on tuition fees" and having "enabled Cameron and Osborne's austerity".

The man says he doesn't think people are going to be convinced by what Sir Ed is saying now.

The Lib Dem leader replies by saying it was "very difficult governing with the Conservatives".

"We couldn't get everything we wanted," he says. "But you were faced with a choice as a minister. You either had to stay in and fight inside the government or leave.

"I think the easy choice for me would have been to leave the government, vote against it, tour the media studios and complain. The hard choice was to stay in, roll my sleeves up and really fight."

Pressed by presenter Fiona Bruce if he is "embarrassed" by some things his party agreed to, he says: "I'm not proud of some of the votes we did.

"I'm not proud of them and I want to overturn them. A lot of our policies are changing some of the things we had to agree to back then."

Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, is first up and asked if his manifesto would bankrupt the UK.

"The answer is no, we put forward a very detailed, costed manifesto," says Sir Ed.

He says the party has shown how they will pay for their plans, including taxing oil and gas giants more, as well as social media companies, and reversing tax cuts for big banks.

Clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion will also be funded, he says.

"The money can be found, it is about the political will."

Sir Ed says other parties are not putting in enough money to save public services like the NHS and schools.

Another audience member asks him about upping the threshold for when lower earners start paying income tax to help with the cost of living, but Sir Ed says that would be unaffordable.

He says he'd instead scrap the two-child benefit cap to help struggling families.

The leaders of the four main parties at Westminster in the last parliament are facing questions from a live audience of voters.

Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer, John Swinney, and Sir Ed Davey are on the BBC's special election edition of Question Time.

Each will face a half-hour of questioning.

We'll bring you live updates and analysis on the main moments.

The Green co-leader says he does not support Just Stop Oil's tactic after the activist group sprayed Stonehenge with orange paint yesterday.

Sophy says the party wants a transformation and society, which it believes is necessary for humanity's survival, and asks if it is logical to take extreme measures, giving the example of Just Stop Oil's protest.

"No, I don't support that particular tactic," Adrian Ramsay says.

"What I would say is that I do defend the right to peaceful protest, because you only have to look at what's happened in countries where those rights to protests are clamped down on that, you know, you're not really living in a democracy."

He adds: "But what I would say is Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil are different organisations from the Green Party.

"We're about trying to achieve change through the political process, who are representing residents in Westminster and in councils around the country.

"I'm not here to speak for other organisations that will make their own decisions, and I don't always agree with their individual tactics."

That brings our coverage of tonight's Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge to an end, but the show will be back at 7pm tomorrow. Stick with us here for live updates and analysis from tonight's BBC Question Time event with the party leaders.

Greens co-leader Adrian Ramsay is now defending his party's proposal to increase tax on people earning more than £50,000 through changing national insurance for those who earn over that threshold.

"Our proposal is that national insurance is changed so that everybody pays the same percentage of their salary on national Insurance, regardless of what they earn," he says.

Mr Ramsay adds: "I'm not saying £50,000 is too high a salary.

"Someone earning £55,000 on our proposals would pay £5 extra a week, but let's look at what they'd get for that - because at the moment we have a situation where people are forking out for a private dentist because there's no access to NHS dentists, they're paying exorbitant rail fares, they're paying high energy and food bills.

"Green proposals are about tackling the cost of living crisis, and the causes of why people are having to fork out those things, and we'd all be better off overall if we put the investment in."

Let's move away from the betting scandal engulfing the Tory party and bring you tonight's leader interview....

The co-leader of the Greens rejects comparisons with Liz Truss for proposing to borrow COVID levels of money to fund his party's manifesto programme.

Speaking toSophy Ridgeon tonight's Politics Hub,Adrian Ramsay, who leads the party alongside Carla Denyer, doesn't reject they would spend £325bn over the course of parliament to invest in public services.

But he denies the suggestion his proposals could be likened to those put forward by the former prime minster, whose economic plans unravelled and forced her from office.

"Our proposal is that over the course of the parliament," Mr Ramsay says, "the extra spending that we would have on day-to-day spending would be funded by increased day-to-day taxes."

He adds: "This is money that's being borrowed for investment. Investment in things like our school buildings that are crumbling, hospital buildings."

The Green Party's manifesto, launched last week, promised to "mend broken Britain" through a programme of investment paid for by the "very richest" in society.

Scroll to the right in the interactive tool below to find out what the party has promised to do if they win the election.

During our panel debate, Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie has called on Rishi Sunak to show some anger over the election betting scandal.

Mr Montgomerie says Tory activists who don't make any money from their involvement in politics and are "in it for the right reasons" will "see people at the centre [...] acting like spivs".

"I'm really frustrated about it," he adds. "I want the prime minister to get out there and embody this bit of anger."

Mr Montgomerie says the prime minister is usually "controlled, almost programmed" and "most of the time you don't want a prime minister who loses control".

But he adds: "Sometimes when you have a scandal, you want the prime minister,you want your leaders to go out there and thump the table and be as angry and as concerned about it as you.

"Because this affects all of us, all of us who are in politics, who believe politics is a noble thing, we're being dragged through the mud by scandals like this."

'It's like The Thick Of It'

Mick Lynch, secretary-general of the RMT, says he finds it "incredible" the Tories "are descending into this".

He says it is like an episode of political comedy The Thick Of It.

"You can't trust people who can't be left on their own with a betting app and think that the betting companies won't find out," he adds.

"If there's more of this we may get a concession of the election before a vote is put into a ballot box."

Allegations Tory candidates placed bets on the election date ahead of the announcement are "really not helpful," says the Conservative business minister Kevin Hollinrake.

Mr Hollinrake was asked about the scandal by our chief political correspondent Jon Craig.

Asked if he placed a bet, Mr Hollinrake says: "No I didn't, and I'm appalled to hear what's gone on in terms of other people doing that.

"It's obviously completely inappropriate and needs to be investigated."

He adds: "These allegations are really serious, and they're really not helpful."

PM told to 'come clean'

Jon also spoke to Jonathan Ashworth, Labour's shadow paymaster general, ahead of tonight's interviews with the leaders of the four major parties in the UK.

Speaking about what we can expect, Mr Ashworth joked: "What we won't get is Sir Keir Starmer saying he's just been down the bookies placing bets on when the election debate will be, but I think there are questions for Rishi Sunak tonight.

"He has to come clean and tell us who knew about this election date. Has he asked his staff, his MPs, his cabinet ministers, whether any of them placed bets?

"It's insider trading. It's a scandal."

All bets are off as Rishi Sunak prepares to face a live TV audience amid dire opinion polls and a new cronyism scandal.

The polls are suggesting a Tory wipeout on 4 July and his campaign chief has been forced to flee the party’s HQ over allegations his wife - a Conservative candidate - bet on the election date.

Ominously for the PM, both the polls and the betting scandal could get worse. Tory support in opinion polls continues to fall and gambling industry sources are expecting "more names" to emerge.

The format of tonight's two-hour BBC Question Time programme at York University is a half-hour grilling from a live audience for Sir Ed Davey, John Swinney, Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Sunak, in that order.

On gambling, the Lib Dem leader is already demanding a Cabinet Office inquiry, while the Labour leader says Tory candidate Laura Saunders - wife of the party's campaign chief Tony Lee - should be suspended.

We can expect more attacks on the PM's handling of the scandal from the three opposition leaders. Mr Sunak, meanwhile, will be challenged on the allegations of corruption and cronyism for the first time.

That's because he's made no public appearances on the day of this latest TV showdown with voters.

Sir Keir, on the other hand, did some campaigning in York ahead of the TV programme. That's what party leaders usually do ahead of these programmes, campaign near the venue for their TV appearance.

We know from last week's Sky News Battle For Number 10 event in Grimsby that a TV audience can be feisty and unforgiving when confronting a party leader pleading for their votes in an election.

At times, Mr Sunak looked crestfallen, as if the row over his D-Day snub to veterans in Normandy had badly damaged confidence and morale.

But we also know Mr Sunak is capable of coming out fighting against Sir Keir, as he did in the first TV debate of the campaign, launching the £2,000 Labour tax grab onslaught that has dominated Tory attacks.

So faced with the twin nightmares of horrendous opinion polls and a betting scandal that could yet get much, much worse, which Mr Sunak will turn up to do battle with his opponents?

All bets are off.

We'll have live updates and analysis from the programme, starting at 8pm, here in the Politics Hub.