United Kingdom

It marks an opportunity for Corbyn, currently trailing Johnson in opinion polls, to claw back the gap between him and his rival.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his challenger, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, staged their first debate of the election campaign on Tuesday night — and what was most notable were the sharp, aggressive questions from the audience, which expressed open mistrust, even disgust, for both candidates.

The Liberal Democrats have threatened legal action against the channel after they were overlooked for the debate, with party leader Jo Swinson insisting that ITV: "cannot and should not exclude the only woman leader who is able to be the next Prime Minister".

The principal reason is that, according to research from Harvard Business School, 72% of voters make up their minds more than two months before the election – meaning few people will change their minds by the time candidates are behind the debate podiums.

It is a basic rule of British politics that anything copied from America is liable to fit imperfectly. This is certainly true of television debates between prime ministerial candidates.

The channel has followed the BBC in inviting only the SNP, Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem leaders to face each other, leaving out the Greens and the Brexit Party.

Do televised debates really help us decide who would make the best Prime Minister? They might tell you something about a party leader’s personality but they don’t really tell you whether they will be much good at the job they’re applying for. You can have the right idea about how to run the health

Uproar soon ensued over who should be allowed to take part in the TV debates, with the smaller parties criticising their lack of representation on our screens. They—rightly—argued that televised leaders’ debates should fairly reflect the choices facing the electorate, rather than attempt to retrofit

The Liberal Democrats called the decision to exclude them from the head-to-head "another establishment stitch-up to shut down debate" and said they would pursue legal action against the BBC - as they have against ITV.

Nicola Sturgeon has condemned a decision to so far exclude the SNP from a live televised election debate on Sky News.