Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer to be grilled by voters dwell on Sky News

Looking ahead to tonight leaders’ event and it’s fair to say the Prime Minister was dealt an early blow as new figures showed the UK economy was shown to have flatlined in April, according to latest figures.

The Office for National Statistics reported that growth domestic product (GDP) was flat during the month following growth of 0.4 per cent in March.

The data will present a headache for the Mr Sunak, who told voters the economy had ‘turned a corner’ after it emerged from recession in the second half of last year.

Tonight’s leaders’ event will see an audience at Grimsby Town Hall question the Prime Minister and the Labour leader hoping to succeed him.

So let’s take a closer look at the Lincolnshire town and the backdrop of the leaders’ special event

In 2019, Grimsby voted Conservative for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

Labour was ousted from the Great Grimsby seat after 74 years, with Tory Lia Nici defeating Melanie Onn by 7,331 votes.

Boundary changes has seen the constituency combine with Cleethorpes, where the Tories have been in power since 2010.

Cleethorpes has been a true bellweather seat, meaning it has backed the largest party in Westminster, since its formation in 1997.

But with support waning for the Tories locally the new Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes seat is shaping up to be a battleground ahead of next month’s vote.

Sky News’ first female political editor Beth Rigby will be tasked with skewering Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer with 20 minutes worth of questioning each tonight before the audience can have their turn.

So let’s take a closer look at Ms Rigby:

• Ms Rigby has worked for Sky News since 2016 and was promoted to Political Editor in 2019 replacing Adam Boulton.
• Before joining Sky News, she worked as a print journalist for nearly 20 years in the fields of finance and politics.
• She began her career on Fleet Street in 1998 when she joined the Financial Times as a trainee and went on to become Consumer Industries Editor in 2007.
• In 2010, she moved to the paper’s Westminster team and was appointed deputy political editor in 2012.
• In 2020, Ms Rigby was taken off air for three months after breaking lockdown rules to attend Kay Burley’s birthday bash.

As we build up to tonight’s debate on Sky News, let’s recap what else has been happening on the campaign trail.

MailOnline has covered the following stories today:

This is the moment Rishi Sunak insisted he still believes the Conservatives can win the general election.

The Prime Minister was speaking in Grimsby after one of his Cabinet ministers said a Labour ‘supermajority’ would be bad for the country.

The Tories remain 20 points behind in the polls.

See the video below:

Labour peer Baroness Ayesha Hazarika has said voters will want to see how the leaders handle themselves in the face of tough questioning and challenges from members of the public.

Speaking to Sky News, Baroness Hazarika said the event could prove pivotal for both men if there is a ‘gaffe’ or an ‘unpredictable moment’ tonight in Grimsby.

She said she thought it was unlikely to result in a dramatic shift in the polls but added it would be an ‘interesting’ night for people watching from home.

We can also bring you footage of Keir Starmer speaking about Labour’s manifesto, which will be launched tomorrow.

The Labour leader has reiterated there will be ‘no tax surprises’ and insisted it will set out plans for the party’s first steps in government if it wins the election.

See the video below:

The Labour leader also chose an educational setting for his campaigning in Grimsby ahead of tonight’s televised event.

Mr Starmer and Melanie Onn, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Great Grimsby, visited Grimsby Institute, a technical training college, to set out plans to bring down costs for drivers and neglect of local roads.

Mr Starmer has pledged to crack down on Britain’s pothole plague, saying he ‘loves driving’ and is as ‘irritated as everyone else’ at the state of the nation’s roads.

Labour laid out what it claimed was a fully costed’ election proposal using £320million from deferring the controversial Arundel A27 bypass in West Sussex as well as £8.3billion in reallocated HS2 funding announced by the government last year.

But Conservatives pointed out Labour’s previous support for ‘anti-driver’ measures including 20mph speed limits in Wales and the Ulez car tax in London, claiming the party had ‘declared war on motorists across Britain’.

Our political editor James Tapsfield reports a ‘pumped’ Rishi Sunak tried to get schoolchildren enthused about maths earlier today as he stepped up campaigning after another blunder.

The PM was greeted with silence after he asked a group of youngsters in Grimsby whether they were ‘excited about the exam’.

Read James’s report here:

MailOnline’s deputy political editor David Wilcock has provided the following analysis on a crucial night for both leaders, particularly Rishi Sunak

Rishi Sunak will be desperate for a positive performance on live television tonight to reignite a Tory election campaign that seems to lurch from bad to worse.

He will be under the spotlight, literally and figuratively, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK breathing down the party’s neck in the opinion polls and Labour pulling away.

After the Prime Minister launched what has been seen as an uninspiring, safety-first Tory manifesto yesterday, senior minister Grant Shapps suggested this morning that the main aim now is to avoid Labour winning a ‘supermajority’ on July 4.

Mr Sunak – who this afternoon insisted he has not abandoned thoughts of winning – will also doubtless face questions over his own personal mistakes. He has already faced serious criticism for leaving June 6 D-Day events in France early to conduct a TV interview.

To make matters worse, he used that ITV grilling to suggest he understood hardship because he did not have Sky TV as a child, because his parents ploughed all their money into his expensive private education.

Mr Sunak did well in a combative ITV head-to-head with Sir Keir Starmer in Manchester last week, with viewers feeling he was a narrow victor. But tonight’s Sky TV event offers him no chance to tear into his opponent as he did then.

The format sees the two leaders take it in turns to be grilled by political editor Beth Rigby and then face questions from the audience in Grimsby. The area is part of the Red Wall that Boris Johnson turned blue for the first time in 90 years in 2019, and it is expected to turn red again.

Mr Sunak will go second and will have to leave it to the presenters and the audience to hopefully ask Sir Keir some difficult questions about Labour’s plans for issues including raising taxes.

Our political correspondent Greg Heffer reports Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will face another TV grilling tonight with latest polls showing Labour with a 20-point lead over the Tories.

In a special Sky News leaders’ programme this evening, the Prime Minister will look to sell his tax-cutting plans to voters after unveiling the Conservative manifesto yesterday.

Read Greg’s report here:

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage as Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer face off on Sky News in the latest televised debate of this general election campaign.

Fresh from launching his manifesto yesterday at Silverstone racing circuit, Mr Sunak will be hoping for the polls to narrow with just three weeks until the country heads out to vote.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer will aim to convince voters he is the best person to take Britain forward.

We will bring you live updates throughout tonight’s debate plus news, reaction and analysis.

The Battle for Number 10 will be broadcast tonight on Sky News from 7pm to 10pm.