- author, Sir John Curtis
- role, Professor of Politics, University of Strathclyde
Friday night’s debate was meant to be a single debate between the seven party representatives, but instead turned into a debate between just two of the representatives, with the rest of the participants primarily serving as critics from the sidelines.
The stars of the evening’s drama, at least in their own eyes, were Labour’s Angela Rayner and the Conservative Penny Mordaunt.
Standing next to each other, in the most charged exchange of the night, the pair sparred bitterly over the apparent failure of the Conservatives’ record and the cost of Labour’s promises.
Even though the two of them were regularly attacked by representatives of the smaller parties, for the most part they largely ignored the other five participants aligned to the right.
Nigel Farage launched a blistering attack on the Conservatives, over Mr Sunak’s failure to attend all of the Normandy landings anniversary celebrations, the party’s record on immigration and some spending cuts.
Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper also joined the effort, albeit from a different perspective: like Rayner, she was keen to attack the Conservative government’s record.
Meanwhile, in the cases of Stephen Flynn of the SNP, Carla Denier of the Green Party and Rune apo Iorworth of Plaid Cymru, the Labour Party was the main target of their intervention.
All three argued, in different ways, that Labour has promised too little funding for public services, welfare, climate change and immigration, and that in their view Labour does not offer a real alternative to the Conservatives.
Diverse positions of the other side These numbers reflect the vastly different opportunities and challenges they face in this election.
Farage’s Reform UK Party is primarily focused on attracting voters away from the Conservatives, while the Liberal Democrats hope to win back seats held by the Conservatives.
The SNP and Greens have primarily competed with Labour for both seats and votes, and while both the Conservatives and Labour posed a threat to Pryde’s most promising prospects in 2019, he may have calculated that Labour actually posed a bigger threat.
What was perhaps more surprising, given the electoral situation they found themselves in, was the apparent reluctance of Mr Rayner and Mr Mordaunt to respond to criticism from other attendees.
After all, the Conservatives are currently losing more voters to Reform UK than to Labour, while Labour is engaged in a crucial battle with the SNP for votes and seats in Scotland.
Yet despite the lack of cross-pollination across the room, the debate offered voters a wider range of arguments than they were used to hearing from either Labour or the Conservatives.
Of course, it’s up to voters to decide how to respond to that.
John Curtice is Professor of Politics at the University of Strathclyde, a Senior Research Fellow at the National Social Research Centre and Britain in a Changing Europe, and co-host of the Trendy podcast.
