Rishi Sunak endured a night to forget as an unforgiving audience held him to account for years of Tory failure.
The PM was booed, heckled and confronted by angry members of the public in a brutal Sky News leaders’ debate. Host Beth Rigby even questioned whether he’d stay at the helm if he were to win the General Election.
Shell-shocked Mr Sunak faced the ire of furious NHS staff, disgruntled young voters and even a former local Tory chair on a horror evening in Grimsby. And a snap YouGov poll confirmed that the PM had been trounced, with 64% saying Keir Starmer had come up on top.
Here we look at some of the key moments in a devastating night as Mr Sunak’s hopes of being re-elected fade even further into the distance.
1. Rishi Sunak torn apart over late Queen image
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A lifelong Tory laid into Mr Sunak over Covid rulebreaking – referencing a heartbreaking picture of the late Queen at Prince Philip’s funeral. Former local Conservative chair Amy said “trust broke down” when Queen Elizabeth attended the funeral of Prince Philip alone as Tories partied in Downing Street.
She said: “I’ll be very honest here, that picture of the Queen, our late Queen, who was left to bury her husband on her own during Covid – following guidance that we all followed – and knowing what was happening in Downing Street and you were part of that.”
The PM stuttered that rules were “difficult” to follow but added: “The Government should absolutely have gone above and beyond in following them. And I deeply regret what happened”
2. PM asked if he’d be kicked out even if he wins
Mr Sunak was confronted with the unprecedented Tory turmoil since the 2019 election. Since then Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and the current incumbent have held the top job.
Ms Rigby asked him: “We’ve had three Prime Ministers, five Chancellors, five Home Secretaries, six Health Secretaries. How do we know that if you won the General Election, you’d still be Prime Minister in a year’s time?”
Mr Sunak – who has struggled to hold his warring party together in recent months – responded: “Look I can appreciate people’s frustrations. Of course, we haven’t got everything right. I don’t think any Government does. And I know it’s been very difficult for many people, but what I can do is work as hard as I can to deliver the stability that I said I would.”
3. NHS worker reveals eight hour wait on stretcher
Mr Sunak had rough ride from medics – including one who was forced to wait eight hours in pain on a stretcher.
Humza from Horsham told the Prime Minister: “As a proud member of staff in the NHS and a patient I’ve seen first hand the chronic effects of underfunding and staff shortages, especially post Brexit. Recruitment and retention is very difficult and staff are burnt out with waiting lists seeming to never end . I’ve personally experienced being left on a stretcher for eight hours while in pain – just in the corridor.”
He asked how the PM could convince him that “you can restore our NHS to an institution we can be proud of.” Mr Sunak opened his reply by telling Humza he comes from an NHS family – and insisting he’s put record funding into it. “But your point is the right one, what we’ve not done for decades is train enough staff.”
He said the NHS Workforce plan – developed by the NHS and rubber stamped by his government – was the right thing to do. Humza came back, telling the PM there “wasn’t a plan” after Brexit to fill shortages.
4. Sunak told Government even less popular than Liz Truss
Beth Rigby told the under-fire PM that the latest YouGov poll puts his party on a paltry 18 points – almost neck-and-neck with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. The Sky News host asked: “Your polling is now worse than in the Liz Truss Government. What’s going wrong?”
Struggling Mr Sunak conceded: “It hasn’t been an easy 18 months, I’m doing my best to keep going.”
5. Anger over National Service pledge
Mr Sunak’s flagship National Service plan hasn’t gone down well on this evidence. He wants to force 18 year olds to do community work or join the
Audience member William asked him: “ Why would a young person today believe the Conservative Party has their best interests at heart?” The PM responded: “On National Service, I have two young girls. I’m extremely excited for them today because I think it’ll be transformative for our country.“
But this was met with laughter in the studio.
6. Keir Starmer told he’s ‘robotic’
The Labour leader was left speechless when an audience member accused him of being a “political robot”. The audience member said he admired “how in touch with the public” the Labour leader appeared when he was director of public prosecutions.
The man added: “But over the last year I feel like you have formed into more of a politician than the person I would have voted for to run the country. You seem more like a political robot. How are you going to convince others like me to vote for you?”
Mr Starmer said he did not apologise for changing the Labour Party and told the audience: “I think it probably is a result of coming into politics late, because I am not tribally political, I actually do believe there are good people who vote other than Labour who want their family, their community, and their country to go forward.”
But the audience member wasn’t satisfied, telling him: “You don’t seem to answer the question”
7. ‘Catalogue of broken promises’
Mr Sunak was told many voters want to kick him out in anger over a “catalogue of broken promises”. Ms Rigby told him: “Your problem is broken promises, it’s deeper than the last couple of years, it’s Brexit, it’s migration, it’s the NHS… it’s levelling up, it’s a catalogue of broken promises.
“You must surely see why so many voters think it’s time you should get your P45.”
Mr Sunak meekly responded: “Of course I understand peoples’ frustrations.” He went on to say the UK had been hit by two “once in a century events” – Covid and the war in Ukraine – but insisted the Government is turning a corner.
8. Fury over daughter’s ‘hopes and dreams’ wrecked
Audience member Ian vented his fury at Mr Sunak over his 19-year-old daughter’s home ownership dream. He demanded: “Why has your Government spoilt their hopes and dreams, and how do we know you won’t do it again?”
In response, Mr Sunak said “inflation is down” and repeated his promise to “abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers like your daughter buying homes up to £425,000”. He also said “inflation is down”.
9. Starmer admits he never thought Corbyn would win
Mr Starmer admitted he was “certain” Labour would lose the 2019 General Election – despite campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn.
The Labour leader’s comments came as he faced a grilling on his support for his predecessor as he was grilled on Sky News’s Battle for No10. Pressed on his previous support for the former Labour leader, Mr Starmer said: “I was certain that we would lose the 2019 election. I did campaign for Labour, of course I did, I will openly say I campaigned for Labour, I wanted good colleagues to be returned into the Labour Party.”
He was also asked if there was a trust issue with voters given his U-turns on pledges from the 2020 Labour leadership race. Mr Starmer told the Sky News leaders’ event in Grimsby: “No because what I would say is this – I decided it must be country first so every decision after that I judged previous decisions, previous positions and I said ‘Is this truly country first, party second’; if the answer to that was ‘no’ then I changed the position and dragged my party back to the service of working people.”
10. Tories are in ‘no position’ to lecture on tax
Mr Starmer was applauded as he claimed the Tories are in “no position” to lecture on tax rises.
Mr Starmer accused the Government of doing “huge damage” to the economy as he distanced himselves from previous Labour leaders. Facing a grilling on his tax plans by Sky News’ Beth Rigby, he said: “The first thing I’ll say is the Tories are in no position to lecture anyone about tax rises.”
And he told voters: “It’s up to you, I think working people shouldn’t pay more tax and we will not raise their tax.” He went on: “There’s a reason that tax has gone up in recent years and that’s because the economy is flatlining.”
Asked if he’d be prepared to pay more tax he replied: “Yes of course.”
11. Laughter and boos as PM defends pledge progress
Mr Sunak faced laughter and boos from the audience on a difficult night. Answering questions about the five pledges he made in January 2023, Mr Sunak said: “The most important priority was the first one, because when I got this job, inflation was at 11% and I think everyone knows the last few years have been difficult, the impact that was having on all your bills.”
He faced laughter when he said: “It (inflation) was always meant to come down over time.” Mr Sunak also faced questions about rising NHS waiting lists, up to 7.54 million from the 7.21 million level when he made the pledge.
“We’ve not made as much progress on cutting waiting lists as I would have liked,” the Prime Minister said. That was something that I was keen to do, and it has proved more difficult for a number of reasons, obviously recovering from a pandemic is not easy,” he said.
He faced groans and boos when he said: “I think everyone knows the impact the industrial action has had, that’s why we haven’t made as much (progress).”