United Kingdom

The election on May 7 is set to be the tightest in Britain for decades partly because traditionally minor parties such as UKIP and the Green Party are polling much higher than before.

The Conservatives and Labour have both claimed victory in the aftermath of Thursday's TV election debate between the leaders of seven political parties.

An average audience of 7.7m, which was a share of 34%, watched the debate on ITV, the BBC News Channel or Sky News.

The seven-way party leaders' TV debate drew an average audience of seven million viewers during its two-hour broadcast on ITV on Thursday night.

The main TV debate of Britain's national election campaign yielded no clear victor with four opinion polls producing four different winners, but David Cameron's attempt to appear the most statesman-like appeared to have paid off.

When I was watching the debate, I felt the leaders were sticking to the old divisive tactics, picking on what the other parties have done in the past and blaming ethnic minority groups or using “popular” causes to try to win votes. Where were the new ideas we should be capable of with all our wealth

With just 35 days until Britons head to the polls, the leaders of seven political parties battled it out on the small screen to win votes in a televised debate.

The result has been mixed with polls differing on who performed best.

Prime Minister David Cameron won the first TV encounter of a close national election in Britain, an opinion poll showed, but opposition Labor leader Ed Miliband leveraged a rare opportunity to promote himself on a national stage.

It wasn’t quite a debate, but back-to-back live televised interviews of Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Ed Miliband were billed Thursday as the unofficial campaign kickoff six weeks before Britain’s general election.

David Cameron last night agreed to a single TV debate during the election campaign. The Prime Minister is expected to attend a seven-way session at the start of April, to be shown on ITV.