ITV Election Debate LIVE: Latest updates as celebration leaders conflict on TV

Mr Farage has a testy exchange with the leader of Plaid Cymru Rhun ap Iorwerth over immigration.

The Reform leader insists he is ‘talking facts’ over immigration and that mass migration has made the country poorer.

Mr ap Iorwerth said a crackdown on dependants was causing problems for universities, to which Mr Farage responded by saying:

You come to university in Britain, you can’t bring your mum, can you?

Angela Rayner kicks off by saying Labour needs a skills and industrial strategy to stop the country being overreliant on foreign workers.

Nigel Farage says we need net migration at zero and a freeze on the total numbers coming in to curb the ‘population explosion’

Carla Denyer kicks off by saying it is ‘shameful’ when politicians scapegoat migrants and that public services need to be invested in.

Stephen Flynn responds by saying Scotland welcomes migration as there isn’t enough in the country and that he is ‘fed up’ of businesses saying they need more work.

Daisy Cooper says every sector is ‘crying out’ for more workers and accuses the Tories of not investing in the domestic workforce, and adds the Lib Dems would increase the wages of care workers.

Rhun Rhun ap Iorwerth – accuses Nigel Farage of being on a ‘dog whistle’ and exploiting people’s fears

Penny Mordaunt says it is important Parliament controls the access of foreign workers and says the Tories have a plan to halve migration.

The next question from the audience is from a woman called Christine who asks how the parties will deal with immigration.

Mr Farage earlier said the NHS crisis was partly caused by an ‘exploding population’ and he’s repeated the phrase when the topic turns to education.

There is a problem, we know the buildings, the Raac concrete, all of that.

But we are back to the subject that nobody wants to discuss, the exploding population means our schools, our class sizes are getting better. Of course we’re recruiting more teachers, we need more teachers with an exploding population. And it’s a constant problem that none of the other policies even want to discuss.

Ms Rayner says she ‘respectfully disagrees’ with Mr Farage’s point about the population and notes rolls in primary schools are in fact falling.

She says Labour plans to add VAT to private school fees will help state schools but Mr Farage counters that it will see class sizes increase as parents can no longer afford private education.

Ms Mordaunt has drawn laughter from the audience after she insisted the education system is ‘world-class’

When we took office literacy rates were trailing the world, now we are leading them… We have undertaken an enormous refurbishment programme. Investment has gone in and we’ve also increased the numbers of teachers that we have, 30,000 more teachers. That is absolutely vital and education standards are going up as a direct consequence of that.

Penny Mordaunt has taken aim at Labour accusing the party of having a ‘black hole of £38.5 billion’ in the party’s manifesto.

Ms Mordaunt said: ‘Labour has only declared about a quarter of the taxes they’re going to put up. They’re going to have to put up a lot more.’

Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, hit back to say what’s unaffordable is five more years of the Conservatives.

She added: ‘You’ve already crashed the economy once.’

Daisy Cooper, the deputy Liberal Democrat leader, interjected to say the Tories had raised the tax burden to the highest level in 80 years.

First clash of the night comes as Stephen Flynn challenges Angela Rayner over social care

Mr Flynn accused Wes Streeting of ‘wanting to hold the door open to the private sector’, to which Ms Rayner shot back ‘that’s not true’.

Ms Rayner says:

Wes Streeting has said in order to bring the record high waiting list down that we would use up capacity in the private sector to bring waiting lists down, rather than keeping people on waiting lists for years, waiting for an operation they need, but it will always be a public service under Labour.

Nigel Farage says Labour is right to use the private sector.

All the leaders are talking about the NHS and Mr Farage says the crisis in the health service has been caused by an ‘exploding population’ as he calls for a French insurance-style system in place.

Penny Mordaunt is quick to attack Labour as she claims they are the only party to cut the NHS budget.

Angela Rayner says the NHS is ‘one of our proudest achievements’ that Labour will fix again.

Carla Denyer says the Greens will provide ‘transformative investment’ while Daisy Cooper for the Lib Dems says her party’s manifesto is about saving the NHS.

Carla Denyer, the Green leader, said people were leaving the NHS “for better pay and better conditions elsewhere”, pledging “transformative investment” in health under the Greens

Julie Etchingham starts the debate by explaining questions will be asked by audience.

Each participant will give an answer interrupted.

When everyone has spoken the debate will then take place.

The first question is from a man named Dennis from Southport who asks how the parties will restore public services.

We’re about to start the ITV debate.

The candidates are introducing themselves before the questions start.

With just minutes to go before the debate starts, we’ve had some early thoughts from the Greens.

Green Party Deputy Leader, Zack Polanski, said from the spin room:

Tonight we will see a real battle of ideas on an equal platform. And after today’s Labour manifesto launch, it’s never been clearer that people want real hope and real change – not just more of the same.

Here is Nigel Farage’s reaction to that huge poll that has dropped on the eve of the ITV election debate.

Nigel Farage teased a major announcement before he heads to the election debate… and here it is.

Reform has overtaken the Conservatives in the polls for the first time.

A YouGov survey for The Times finds Nigel Farage’s party on 19 points – one in front of the Tories.

The poll was carried out this week after Rishi Sunak launched the Conservative manifesto.

I’m sure it will be mentioned tonight!

We’re just 30 minutes from the ITV Election Debate.

Hopefully we will start to see candidates arriving soon so stick with us for live updates from throughout the debate.

Big news to bring you tonight before we look forward to the ITV debate.

Army bomb disposal experts and police are investigating a suspect device at a Conservative candidate’s office in West Sussex.

Sussex Police were pictured at the scene outside Jeremy Quin’s office in Horsham, with photos showing a bomb disposal vehicle and a fire engine on the street.

Read Katherine Lawton’s story below:

If you’re a Conservative voter…look away now.

Greg Heffer reports a new poll puts the Tories at their lowest-ever level of support with just 18 per cent of the vote three weeks out from the general election.

Read his report here:

One of the standout moments from this morning’s Labour manifesto launch was the moment a climate heckler disrupted the Labour leader during his flagship address.

The Green New Deal Rising campaign group named the activist as 27-year-old Alice, who said in a statement: ‘I disrupted the Labour Party’s manifesto launch today because I feel so betrayed and disappointed by what the Labour Party is offering at this election.’

Sir Keir responded to the protest by saying Labour ‘gave up on being a party of protest five years ago’, before adding it now wanted to be a ‘party in power’.

See the moment below:

Another little item from today…

Dawn Butler, a Labour candidate and former MP who is standing in the London seat of Brent Central, left social media users cringing today after she released a rap of a campaign song.

Ms Butler has released a video of herself rapping to mark the three-week countdown to the general election. She shared a clip of herself singing over a remixed version of ’21 Seconds’ by So Solid Crew.

‘We’ve got 21 days to go,’ she sings, before referencing Rishi Sunak’s D-Day blunder.

Receving a mixed reaction on social media, one wrote: ‘This is beyond embarrassing, the UK’s political class is a joke.’

Before we look ahead to tonight’s debate, let’s just remind you all of what’s happened on the election trail earlier today.

Tonight’s 90-minute debate will be moderated by ITV News presenter Julie Etchingham (pictured) who also hosted the first televised leaders clash between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer on June 4.

While some viewers praised Ms Etchingham for how she handled that debate, others slammed ITV for allowing Mr Sunak and Mr Starmer to speak over one another and accused the host of ‘failing to get a grip of’ the debate.

Read our piece below:

Throughout the election debates we have heard from our own MailOnline panel of voters.

Relive the verdict from the first multi-party debate as some felt Penny Mordaunt was ‘dealt a bad hand’ by having to represent the Conservatives after Rishi Sunak made an early exit from the D-Day commemorations in Normandy.

Read the piece below:

For the first televised multi-party debate on the BBC last Friday, an average audience of 3.2 million tuned in to watch the clash.

That was an increase from the BBC’s seven-way debate in the run-up to the 2019 general election, which attracted an average audience of 2.5 million.

During Friday’s debate, hosted by Mishal Husain, Ms Mordaunt and Ms Rayner engaged in fiery exchanges over tax, NHS waiting lists and the push for Net Zero.

Ms Mordaunt continued to repeat the Tories’ claim that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000 if elected, prompting Ms Rayner to accuse the Cabinet minister of lying.

A snap viewer poll taken after the debate placed Mr Farage as the winner. The poll, conducted by researchers More In Common, asked more than 1,000 viewers who won the debate, with 25 per cent of those surveyed opting for Mr Farage.

Our political correspondent Greg Heffer will be covering tonight’s debate for MailOnline.

He reports Tory minister Penny Mordaunt, Labour’s Angela Rayner and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are set for another fiery clash tonight in the seven-way TV general election debate.

Mr Farage – who was judged to have won last week’s debate by viewers – risked a sexism row when he suggested the heated exchanges between the House of Commons Leader and Labour deputy represented a ‘catfight’.

Read his preview here:

Hello and welcome to MailOnline’s live coverage of the ITV Election Debate featuring leaders and senior politicians from seven political parties in this year’s general election.

Tonight we will see Reform leader Nigel Farage, Conservative Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt and Labour deputy Angela Rayner face off against one another as well as representatives from the Lib Dems, SNP, Greens and Plaid Cymru.

The line-up is a carbon copy of the first televised multi-party debate on the BBC last Friday in which voters declared Nigel Farage as the winner in a snap poll.

Join us for live updates throughout the 90-minute event plus reaction afterwards.