BBC general election debate LIVE: Penny Mordaunt says Rishi Sunak’s decision to leave D-Day commemorations early was ‘completely wrong’ in fiery start to battle between seven major parties

What we’re doing in this country is we’re sacrificing our growth, we’re sacrificing British manufacturing. And we’re saying to ourselves, isn’t it marvellous, we’re reducing carbon emissions more than any other western country? But we haven’t.

We’ve been chucking 20 per cent on people’s electricity bills now for 20 years to pay for very inefficient wind energy. What’s really happening with net zero, what’s happening with the attempt to deal with climate change, not that we can because we produce less than one per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide – and the Chinese are building 80 new coal power stations- we should not forget we need oil and gas for the next 30 years.

Net zero is a bad policy and it’s bad for people.

Mishal Husain was applauded and managed to crack a few laughs from the audience when she asked Ms Cooper ‘do you remember going back on the tuition fees pledge?’

This came as Ms Cooper tried to claim that all the current government has done is broken people’s ‘hope’.

The fact is that this Parliament has been characterised by law-breaking, by lying and by the economic illiteracy of the mini-Budget.

And of all the things that the Conservatives have broken, the worst thing that I think people have broken is people’s hope.

Nigel Farage jokes around with the audience by saying all candidates are ‘very dull’, calling Rishi Sunak ‘slippery Sunak’ and Sir Keir Starmer as ‘Blair without the flair’.

The real leader of the Labour Party’s here tonight, at least she’s got some personality.

Mr Farage continued that Labour and the Tories ‘don’t really disagree on anything’.

There’s a sense we need a revolt against this system, we need an electoral system where we get some proportional representation in Britain.

What we’re being offered, frankly, are two parties promising the earth and nothing much will change no matter who goes in. New politics, fresh start, we want a revolt from the British people. That’s what I’m after.

Ms Rayner scolded him as playing the ‘clown’ just like Boris Johnson used to do.

Labour will not promise anything we cannot fund and we have been absolutely clear, the Tories have had a record number of tax hikes on people in this country.

Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, said energy bills had been ‘too expensive’.

The big one’s taxes. Even during Tony Blair’s time the top rate of tax was 40p in this country, and it was paid by one million people in this country. By 2029, eight million people will be paying the 40p rate of tax… That’s why life is so tough.

To hear Penny Mordaunt, whose Government have put the tax burden up to the highest in this country since 1948, pretending they’re a tax-cutting party, frankly, it is dishonesty on a breathtaking scale.

Penny Mordaunt said Labour would raise taxes:

The only way to keep the recovery going is to give you more money in your pockets. We have got to cut taxes and alleviate burdens on business. The Labour party and Angela Rayner will put up your taxes by £2000.

Rayner immediately shuts that down:

That is a lie. Your government has raised taxes to a record level.

Mishal Husain said the £2,000 figure had been criticised by the UK statistic watchdog.

The Green Party’s Carla Denyer responds to the extended shouting match between Mordaunt and Rayner saying: ‘That was terribly dignified, wasn’t it?’

To many laughs in the audience..

When it’s hard to get an affordable home, when it’s home to access public services like a GP, when the roads are poorly-maintained, I can absolutely understand Lorenzo why you’re angry about these things.

I am too. But I am clear that the reason for these services being run into the ground, it is not people coming here… Migration’s been a good thing for this country.

She added that the conservatives have ‘made a complete mess both of our migration system, but also the asylum system’ and created ‘the worst of both worlds’

We have people who are desperate fleeing persecution arriving on small boats, at the same time we have our NHS, our social care, we have hospitality and engineering, none of them can recruit the staff they need with the skills to boost our economy.’

She argued for care workers to have a higher minimum wage and progression in the work force, and invite people from other countries when needed to fill skills gaps.

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, said:

The problems with housing, the roads and GPs and public services is the decimation that the Tories have done to our public services.

We’ve said we need a new Border Command, we said we would scrap the Rwanda scheme, we would put that into a Border Force Command which would smash the gangs.

And 14 years of the Conservatives, they’re relying on overseas to fill our skills shortages because we haven’t got an industrial and skills strategy. Labour will put one in place.

People come to our country and they’re propping up many of our services because we haven’t trained the people to do that.

Penny Mordaunt, the Commons Leader, hit back:

Keir Starmer has spent most of his life campaigning for free movement. These guys are not going to control immigration”

Carla Denyer in green for the Greens

Lets change the tone of the debate on immigration. Too much of it is framed around the bigotry of people like Nigel Farage.

Penny Mordaunt can’t stand up to Nigel Farage as she wants her party to be like his.

Angela Rayner can’t stand up to Nigel Farage because of the shift in her party to the right. Plaid party will stand up.

Nigel Farage says the NHS model isn’t working and the more money we spend, the less delivery we get, which means the model is wrong.

Flynn says this is Nigel telling you he “does not believe in NHS”.

Farage hits back that there are countries, such as France, that have different way of funding healthcare using an insurance model.

Carla Denyer, Green party deputy leader argued that more investment is the answer for the NHS.

A £30 billion increase in funding for health services, a £20 billion social care and a £20 billion in capital investment.

Her answer is to reform the tax system, which she argued is ‘unfair’. Instead the ‘super rich’ should be taxed more as they have the ‘broadest shoulder to pay’.

Stephen Flynn, Westminster Leader hits back at high wait times in Scotland:

Nobody would seek the challenges which exist in our NHS, which across these islands, primarily driven through two issues, one the backlog of Covid, two the austerity agenda which is impacting us from Westminster and has done from the last 14 years.

The Tories and Labour both know they’re going to cut public sector investment to come.

Read analysis from MailOnline’s deputy political editor David Wilcock on the start of the debate.

Under the Conservatives health and social care services have been driven into the ground.

Across all of our policies we will not tax struggling family during the cost of living crisis but we will be taxing the big companies.

Stephen Flynn, Westminster SNP leader

I was a disabled man and I would not be here today without the wonderful treatment from the NHS.

The two leading women clashed over defence.

Mordaunt took aim at Labour’s Rayner for voting to end Trident, the country’s nuclear deterrent.

Mordaunt brings up Russian President Vladimir Putin, and says if you’re doubting Labour would use that force – ‘imagine what Putin is thinking’.

‘Without credibility, we become a target’, Mordaunt says.

While Rayner hits back saying: ‘I will not be lectured by you on this.’

Penny Mordaunt, the Tory leader of the Commons, said:

What happened was completely wrong and the Prime Minister has rightly apologised for that, apologised to veterans but also to all of us, because he was representing all of us.

I’m from Portsmouth, I’ve also been defence secretary and my wish at the end of this week is that all of our veterans feel completely treasured. And I’m hoping tonight to convince you of some of the things that are important to them.

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader

In what is a very insecure world at the moment. First of all Labour’s committed to the triple lock on the nuclear deterrent, especially in the climate they’re in… and we will continue with the upgrades.

We will have a commitment to the 2.5 per cent spending of GDP, and one of the other things that is a real scandal at the moment is the Armed Forces and the accommodation they’re given.

A conservative spokeswoman has urged voters to back to party:

In this election, the choice is clear – the Conservative Party, who have a clear plan and are taking bold action needed to deliver a secure future, or Keir Starmer’s Labour Party – which has no plan whatsoever.

There are only two people who will be Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, or Keir Starmer. A vote for any other party is a vote to hand Keir Starmer the keys to No10.

This is the man who will pick the British public’s pockets from day 1, with a £2,094 tax bombshell on working families and raiding pensioners’ hard-earned savings with his Retirement Tax.

Labour will take us right back to square one, and only a vote for the Conservatives can stop that.

Five minutes to go until we are underway with the BBC Election debate in London.

We will be providing live updates as well as analysis and reaction throughout – so make sure to follow along!

The post was shared by Angela Rayner, Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy who will be representing him tonight.

Pat McFadden, Labour’s National Campaign Coordinator, speaking ahead of the BBC’s debate, said:

Tonight the British people will witness the choice at this election: five more years of chaos with the Conservatives or change with the Labour Party.

The Conservatives’ campaign is in chaos. While Rishi Sunak’s scatter-gun approach is the latest sign of his desperation, Keir Starmer is offering a credible plan to change Britain.

On 4 July, the British people will have the chance to vote for change. To stop the chaos, turn the page and start to rebuild our country.

A squirming Rishi Sunak today issued a grovelling apology in front of TV cameras for leaving D-Day commemoration events early.

The embattled Prime Minister, who is facing a huge Tory backlash, admitted that he ‘made a mistake’ in skipping a major international ceremony in Normandy.

Speaking to broadcasters on a general election campaign visit to Swindon, Wiltshire, Mr Sunak was grilled about veterans saying he had ‘let the country down’.

‘I care deeply,’ the PM insisted, as he called for D-Day events not to be ‘politicised’.

It has been reported that Unite the Union, Labour’s biggest donor did not support its manifesto.

Sky News reported that this was due to concerns about fire and rehire and the banning of new oil and gas licences.

Senior party figures and associates including union leaders met at a top secret location in Westminster this afternoon to sign off its manifesto for the July 4 vote.

Sir Keir and his top team are expected to face fights over a range of social and geopolitical issues including the fighting in Gaza.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn will be leading the charge for his party.

He has been the Westminster representative since 2022, after being elected as an MP in 2019.

The 35-year-old made headlines earlier this year when he called for Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to step down over his handling of a vote on Gaza.

Ms Denyer has been the co-leader of the greens since 2021.

She has a long history in politics after started campaigning at just 18 years old before becoming a city councillor in Bristol for nine years.

In 2018, she wrote Europe’s first Climate Emergency declaration, pushing Bristol to become carbon neutral by 2030 – a measure later adopted by hundreds of councils and the UK Parliament.

She describes herself as bisexual or pansexual and was recognised as one of Bristol’s most influential LGBTQ+ people by media website Bristol Live in 2021.

Rishi Sunak has been heckled while campaigning in Wiltshire.

While speaking about healthcare in the UK a member of crowd got increasingly infuriated at the PM and shouted:

The country’s not stupid Rishi!

They were discussing filling GP practices with enough qualified doctors.

Deputy leader of the Lib Dems Daisy Cooper will be representing her party in tonight’s head-to-head.

She was finally elected as an MP for St Albans in 2019, after three previous unsuccessful attempts.

The 42-year-old was previously the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education in 2021 and the spokesperson for Justice and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2020.

Nigel Farage will be speaking on behalf of Reform UK following his appointment as party leader this week.

The former MEP and face of the Brexit campaign is back hoping, for the eighth time, to win a seat in Government.

He resigned as UKIP leader in 2016 and later helped launch the Brexit Party, which in 2020 rebranded as Reform UK.

It is expected that he will go in hard on Rishi Sunak for missing the end of the D-Day celebrations, while pushing the narrative that his party is the clear alternative to the Tories.

Deputy leader of the Labour party Angela Rayner will be standing in for Keir Stamer tonight.

The 44-year-old was elected an MP in 2015 and became deputy leader five years later.

Her plan for the evening is likely to showcase that the country can’t face another five years under Conservative rule and to disprove allegations made during the ITV debate that the public could face a £2000 tax bill increase under Labour.

Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt will be representing the Tory party for tonight’s debate.

The 51-year-old was elected as an MP in 2010, and has held a number of ministerial posts including being the first female defence secretary in 2019.

She ran unsuccessfully twice to be leader of the Conservatives, following the resignations of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Her aim for the evening is likely to be to limit the fallout from Rishi Sunak leaving the D-Day celebrations early and to push the line that a Labour government will raise taxes.

Good evening and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the BBC election debate which will see seven leading political figures go head-to-head.

The programme will be presented by Mishal Husain in front of a live audience and can be viewed on BBC 1, BBC News and BBC iPlayer from 7:30pm.

We will be providing live updates from the debate as well as analysis and reaction throughout.

Conservative Party: Penny Mordaunt

Labour Party: Angela Rayner

Scottish National Party: Stephen Flynn

Liberal Democrats: Daisy Cooper

Green Party: Carla Denyer

Reform Party: Nigel Farage

Plaid Cymru: Rhun ap Iorwerth