It was the top-billed political show of the day – well, until that GP took beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to task for allowing the NHS to “disintegrate” on his watch…
But viewers of the BBC’s seven-way Election Debate were left confused by an apparent sound issue as senior figures from the seven major political parties began trading verbal blows.
As Nigel Farage, Penny Mordaunt, Angela Rayner, Stephen Flynn, Daisy Cooper, Carla Denyer and Rhun ap Iorwerth all started talking, watchers noticed their audio was out of sync.
“Is it just me or is the audio quality during the #bbcdebate so far really naff? Quite tinny and quiet,” one wrote on X.
“Is it me or is it REALLY quiet #BBCDebate,” said another.
And a third quipped: “Solidarity the sound people presumably having a nightmare behind the scenes right now. #BBCdebate.”
Another wrote: “Audio is so lousy. Really thin and tinny with a huge amount of room noise from the PA system. Makes it impossible when they’re talking over each other.”
Meanwhile, Penny Mordaunt was forced to condemn her boss Rishi Sunak after he abandoned yesterday’s D-Day commemorations in Normandy to fly home for a pre-recorded TV interview.
The Leader of the Commons – and possible future leadership contender – told a BBC audience: “What happened was completely wrong.”
It came after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said Mr Sunak had “deserted” veterans and accused the PM of not being “patriotic”. And in a scathing broadside Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper described her grandfather’s horrific ordeal, describing Mr Sunak’s snub as “utterly unforgivable”.
She said: “I started yesterday morning watching a recording made by the Royal Mint of my late grandfather, where he recounts catching his best friend who fell from the top of a Sherman tank. He was shot in the head and as he waded through the water, he recounted, in his words, men blown to pieces, hands, legs and heads.
“If he had been there yesterday, I’d seen the Prime Minister walk away from him. I would have found that completely, as I do now, find it completely and utterly unforgivable.”
It came on a nightmare day for the Tories, which saw Rishi Sunak forced to apologise for disrespecting World War Two veterans after leaving a D-Day commemoration early. And to make matters worse he was heckled on a campaign event in Wiltshire, where GP Dr Jane Millais told him: “The NHS is disintegrating.”
This morning the PM took the unusual step of issuing an apology for his “mistake”, which he repeated in an awkward exchange with broadcasters. Mr Sunak insisted he “stuck to the itinerary that had been set for me as Prime Minister weeks ago” – suggesting he had never intended to go to the centrepiece of the D-Day commemorations, even before he called the election.