2010 United Kingdom general election debates

Gordon Brown	David Cameron	Nick Clegg

The 2010 United Kingdom general election debates consist of a series of three leaders debates conducted on live television between the leaders of the three main parties contesting the 2010 United Kingdom general election. These were also preceeded by a debate between the party financial spokespersons. It is the first time such live debates have occurred in a UK election. In the leaders' debates, the incumbent Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party, Gordon Brown, is debating alongside the Leader of the Opposition and Conservative Party leader David Cameron, as well as Nick Clegg, leader of the UK's third party, the Liberal Democrats.

The three leaders' debates, to run without breaks for 90 minutes each, are being produced by ITV, BSkyB and the BBC respectively, moderated by Alastair Stewart, Adam Boulton and David Dimbleby. During each debate the leaders are to be asked questions not known to them in advance, but selected beforehand by the broadcasters, and asked either by the audience, or via email. For each question, each leader will first answer in turn for one minute, then rebut for one minute each, followed by a period of free debate of up to four minutes, at the broadcaster's discretion. The polling organisation ICM selects representative audience members primarily from within 30 miles of the venue, with the debates taking place in three different parts of England, the north west, the south west, and the midlands. The broadcasters pre-select the questions to be asked of the leaders, both from the audience and the general public. Each debate, through the questions selected, is to focus on a set theme for the first half of the debate: domestic, international and economic affairs, before moving on to general issues.

Prior to the leaders debates, on Monday 29 March the three main parties' financial spokesmen participated in a debate focusing on the economy, with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling debating with the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne and Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman Vince Cable on Channel 4.

The first debate took place on 15 April in Manchester. Instant polling universally agreed Nick Clegg was the winner of this first debate, with most also showing David Cameron as having come second, with Brown last.

History

A proposal for leaders debates was first mooted at the 1964 general election when Harold Wilson challenged then Prime Minister Alec Douglas Home to an election debate. Home rejected the proposal on the grounds that: "You'll get a sort of Top of the Pops contest. You'll then get the best actor as leader of the country and the actor will be prompted by a scriptwriter." Wilson himself rejected Ted Heath's proposal for debates, worried about the unpredictability of such a debate and not wishing to give Heath exposure as a potential Prime Minister. In 1979, Jim Callaghan became the first incumbent Prime Minister to agree to a debate but the idea was rejected by Margaret Thatcher on the grounds that presidential-style debates were alien to Britain. Both Thatcher and her successor as Prime Minister, John Major, rejected Labour leader Neil Kinnock's debate proposal, with Major commenting that "every party politician that expects to lose tries that trick of debates and every politician who expects to win says no."

However at the 1997 general election, Major then called for similar debates, which did not take place as the political parties and the broadcasters could not agree on a format acceptable to all sides in the time available. Since 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown had argued that the weekly Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons was sufficient. For the 2001 general election Tony Blair turned down a debate with William Hague. On 28 April 2005, Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy took part in a special edition of the BBC's Question Time, although they did not debate directly, and were questioned individually by host David Dimbleby.

The idea of holding leaders debates for the 2010 election was first supported by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, with Gordon Brown later agreeing. In 2009, Sky News began a campaign for leaders debates which was followed by a joint proposal from the BBC, ITV and BSkyB to stage three live election debates between leaders of the three main political parties, one debate for each broadcaster.

On 21 December 2009, agreement was reached between the three main parties and the three broadcasters, BBC, ITV and BSkyB, on the key principles behind holding live election debates for the 2010 election campaign. On 1 March 2010 a set of 76 detailed rules for the leaders debates were announced.

Leaders debates

Principles and rules

The December 2009 key principles agreed were that the three main party leaders would appear together in three separate live television debates, and be given equal treatment. The debates were to be held during three weeks of the election campaign, or over two weeks if there was less than four weeks between the election being called and polling day. Each broadcaster would produce one debate each using the same format, ITV first from the North West, Sky from the South/South West, and lastly the BBC from The Midlands. A live audience would be chosen by polling company ICM mainly from the surrounding region, to be broadly representative. Each broadcaster would select questions from the audience using their own criteria and selection panel. Each broadcast would be between 85 and 90 minutes in duration with half of it focused on a specific theme. There would be no advert breaks and each debate was to take place in peak time. ITV was to make their transmission available simultaneously online and to radio, and to other other television broadcasters immediately after the programme, while BSkyB and the BBC were to make their programmes available to other broadcasters simultaneously.

In March 2010, 76 separate rules governing the programmes were published in all, along with the names of the members of the three editorial panels, which would be selecting audience questions for each broadcaster. The rules specified how the audience was to be selected and presented on television, what role the audience would play in the debate, the structure of the programme, the role of the moderator and the layout of the set. In addition, it specified the three themes and their order: Domestic affairs, International affairs and Economic affairs, drawn by lots by the broadcasters.

Audience and question selection

The audience would be made up of around 200 people subject to venue capacity, and was to be recruited broadly demographically from within a 30 mile radius of the venue. It was to be recruited by ICM ensuring at least 80% declare a voting intent, with the final selection to ensure a ratio of 7:7:5 between Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters, with the broadcasters also allowed to include those showing a voting preference for minor parties.

Each broadcaster's selection panel was to pre-select the debate questions from suggestions made by the ICM selected audience, as well as selecting a maximum of four questions from suggestions submitted by the general public from around the UK, to be submitted by email and read out by the moderator, or read out in person as an extra audience member. In selecting questions, the panel was to "take into account factors such as the prominence of certain issues in the campaign, the distinctiveness of the different parties' policies on election issues, voters' interest and issues relevant to the role of the Prime Minister". The questions would be known only to the panel before the debate, but must be selected so as to be relevant to campaign issues, relevant to each party, and not be focused on one leader.

Programme format

The leaders would each open the programme with a one minute speech, and close with a one and a half minute speech, with the questions asked inbetween, in the first half on the theme subject, and in the second half on any subject. For both the themed and unthemed halves of the programme, the pre-selected questions would be asked by the audience, without deviation, and answered by each leader in turn for one minute each, who would each then have an additional minute in turn to respond to each other's answer. At the programme editor's discretion, following each question, there be a maximum of four minutes of free debate between the leaders. No audience applause would be allowed during the programme. In the themed half of the debate, audience members would be asking a maximum of three questions on each sub-theme, while in the unthemed portion, a maximum of two questions would be allowed on the same subject.

First debate - Domestic affairs

• Title: The First Election Debate
• Date: 15 April 2010; 8:30 pm
• Channel: ITV1/STV/UTV, ITV1 HD
• Location: Manchester
• Producer: ITV Studios
• Moderator: Alastair Stewart
• Sub-themes: National Health Service (NHS); Education; Immigration; Law and Order; Family; Constitution; Trust in politics; Political reform

Instant polling after the first debate declared Nick Clegg the winner:

• ITV News/ComRes: 43% for Clegg, 26% for Cameron, 20% for Brown
• Sky News/Fizzback: 37% for Clegg, 32% for Brown, 31% for Cameron
• Times/Populus: 61% for Clegg, 22% for Cameron and 17% for Brown
• Sun/YouGov: 51% for Clegg, 29% for Cameron, 19% for Brown

A transcript of the debate has been published.

Second debate - International affairs

• Title: The Sky News Debate
• Date: 22 April 2010; 8 pm
• Channel: Sky News, Sky News HD
• Location: Bristol
• Producer: British Sky Broadcasting
• Moderator: Adam Boulton
• Sub-themes: International relations; Afghanistan; Iraq; Iran; Middle East; UK defence; International terrorism; Europe; Climate change; China; International Development

Third debate - Economic affairs

• Title: The Prime Ministerial Debate
• Date: 29 April 2010; 8:30 pm
• Channel: BBC One, BBC HD, BBC News Channel
• Location: The Midlands
• Producer: BBC
• Moderator: David Dimbleby
• Sub-themes: Financing of public services; Taxation; Debt; Deficit; Public finances; Recession; Recovery; Banking and finance; Business; Pensions; Jobs

Financial debate

In late January 2010, it was speculated by The Times that debates may also take place between the parties' financial spokesmen, Chancellor Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable. In March, it was confirmed that a debate would be held on Monday 29th March at 8pm on Channel 4. Lasting for 60 minutes, it featured the three men taking questions from a studio audience. This debate was chaired by Krishnan Guru-Murthy.

• Title: The Chancellors Debate
• Date: 29 March 2010; 8pm
• Channel: Channel 4
• Producer: ITN/Mentorn Media for Channel 4
• Moderator: Krishnan Guru-Murthy

Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales debates

On the announcement of the UK party leader debates, it was also announced there would be separate debates between the main parties of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. The BBC would broadcast these on their respective BBC national region channels, BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Wales, and would also transmit them across the UK on the BBC News Channel.

The Scottish series of debates are to take place between Jim Murphy (Labour), Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party), David Mundell (Conservatives) and Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrats). The first debate, chaired by John MacKay will be broadcast live on STV and ITV1 Border on Tuesday 20 April at 9pm - the second will air on Sunday 25 April at 10.30am on Sky News and is moderated by Adam Boulton, with the final Scottish debate taking place on Sunday 2 May on BBC One Scotland and the BBC News Channel.

Controversy

The Scottish National Party which forms the devolved Scottish Government, has threatened to prevent any such debates being screened in Scotland should its leader not be included.

UKIP who are a minor party, but did well in the 2009 European elections, has complained about having been denied a chance to appear in televised debates. TV companies agreed the deal based on which parties were standing across Great Britain and already have existing seats in the House of Commons. UKIP, the SNP and Plaid Cymru have all protested. The debates have been defended on the grounds that participation is limited to the 3 largest parties with the biggest chance of winning the election.

See also

• Politics of the United Kingdom
• United Kingdom general election, 2010

External links

• BBC Election, The Debates
• BBC Prime Ministerial Debate
• ITV Election Debate
• The Leaders' Debate On Sky News
• Interviews about debates