What could possibly go wrong? A history of TV debates as Sunak and Starmer prepare to go head-to head
The most famous TV election debate image is a sweaty and unshaven Richard Nixon up against the telegenic JFK in the US in 1960.
Here in the UK, the most decisive debate game-changer was Gordon Brown and David Cameron conceding “I agree with Nick” in 2010.
That sparked the “Cleggmania” which propelled Nick Clegg to the post of deputy prime minister in Mr Cameron’s coalition government.
Mr Nixon’s disaster under the harsh TV lights came in the first TV debate held in a US presidential election, one of four during the 1960 campaign.
At the time, Mr Nixon was Republican vice-president and John F Kennedy a young Democratic Party senator. But Mr Nixon was cruelly exposed as a TV novice and looked shifty.
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He was pale, after a hospital stay because of a knee injury, his suit colour blended in with the set and his refusal to wear TV make-up revealed a five-o-clock shadow.
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The debate was a turning point in the campaign and changed US politics for ever: just as the 2010 Brown-Cameron-Clegg debates blazed a trail in the UK.
It was 50 years after the Nixon-JFK clash before TV debates between party leaders in general election campaigns began in the UK. There were three in 2010, hosted by ITV, Sky News and the BBC.
Prior to 2010, the lack of debates wasn’t for the lack of trying, however, with opposition leaders or prime ministers behind in the polls issuing a challenge and then being rebuffed.
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As a general rule, it’s usually underdogs with nothing to lose – like Rishi Sunak in this campaign – who want to debate against an opponent with a healthy lead in the opinion polls.
But not always. In 1964 Labour’s Harold Wilson challenged Alec Douglas-Home. No, said the Tory prime minister, it would be like “Top of the Pops”. But in 1970 prime minister Wilson said no to Edward Heath.
In 1979, a struggling James Callaghan, who looked to be on his way out, challenged Tory leader Margaret Thatcher. But this time it was the opposition leader who turned down the prime minister.
As prime minister, Mrs Thatcher also said no to Neil Kinnock in 1987, as did Sir John Major in 1992, even though he was behind in the polls – before pulling off a shock election victory over Labour.
Later, Sir John observed: “Every party politician that expects to lose tries that trick of debates and every politician who expects to win says no.” That’s still true today.
The first debate in 2010 was at the old Granada studios in Manchester, home to the Coronation Street set and, back then, a replica House of Commons used for TV dramas.
As well as the “I agree with Nick” errors by Mr Brown and Mr Cameron, a Sky News body language expert said Mr Clegg looked strongest because he looked directly at the TV camera lens.
The leaders’ debate in 2010
The Sky News debate, chaired by Adam Boulton, was held in an arts centre in Bristol Harbour. This time there was no “I agree with Nick”. Mr Brown and Mr Cameron had learned their lesson.
The BBC debate, in the Great Hall of Birmingham University, was held the day after Gordon Brown’s most disastrous day during he 2010 campaign, his “bigoted woman” gaffe.
Campaigning in Rochdale, the then-prime minister had been heckled and challenged on immigration by a voter, Gillian Duffy, but left his lapel microphone switched on when he was driven away.
“That was a disaster – they should never have put me with that woman,” he said, berating his staff. “Whose idea was that? Ridiculous.” Asked what she had said, he replied: “Everything, she was just a bigoted woman.”
The next day, at the start of the TV debate, he said sheepishly: “There’s a lot to this job and as you saw yesterday I don’t get all of it right.”
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Prime Minister David Cameron and Ed Miliband clash over TV debates
But once in Number 10 it was Mr Cameron’s turn to have regrets. And asked by Sky News in December 2012 if he would commit to TV debates at the next election, he signalled he wanted changes before agreeing.
“My reflection on last time was that they did suck all the life out of the campaign,” he said. “The press and all of us were interested in the run-up to the debate, the debate and the post-debate analysis, not the rest of the campaign, which I really enjoy.”
So by 2015 the format had changed. In the first programme, Mr Cameron and Labour’s Ed Miliband separately answered questions from Jeremy Paxman and then from an audience, moderated by Sky’s Kay Burley.
Second was an ITV debate with seven party leaders, including Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband, Mr Clegg, Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel Farage, and third a BBC debate with five opposition leaders but no Mr Cameron and no Mr Clegg.
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Fourth was a BBC Question Time with Mr Cameron, Mr Miliband and Mr Clegg interviewed separately. And Mr Cameron’s tough negotiating tactics paid off as he won an overall majority and the Lib Dems suffered major losses.
In 2017 Theresa May refused to take part, later admitting that was a mistake. A well as TV interviews, two debates took place, with seven party leaders invited.
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn missed the first, but at short notice attended the second, at the Cambridge Union, where Amber Rudd deputised for Ms May, despite her father dying three days earlier.
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn took part in TV debate in the 2019 election campaign.
In 2019, Mr Corbyn and Boris Johnson debated twice, in clashes dominated by Brexit. In the first, Mr Corbyn was laughed at by the audience when he failed to say which side of the argument he was on.
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In the same debate, Mr Johnson – who less than three years later would be forced to quit as prime minister after lying to parliament over “party-gate” – was laughed at for claiming he believed truth matters.
In the second, Mr Johnson attacked Mr Corbyn over his stance on antisemitism, the issue which four years later led to the former Labour leader being thrown out of the party and fighting this election as an independent.
Now it’s the turn of Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Advice to both? Wear plenty of TV make-up, unlike Richard Nixon. And unlike Mr Brown and Mr Cameron, don’t agree with your opponent.
What could possibly go wrong?
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
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The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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