General Election Debate Ratings Revealed: Rishi Sunak & Keir Starmer’s Face-Off Watched By Less Than 5M

Last night’s first general election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer was watched by an average of 4.8M viewers, falling more than 2M behind the previous debate in 2019.

The Julie Etchingham-hosted ITV ding dong, which was produced by MultiStory Media and lasted just more than an hour, peaked with around 5M towards the end, according to Barb data supplied by overnights.tv. It fell behind the previous head-to-head between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn in 2019, which garnered an audience of 7M.

TV debates have become an established part of the UK general election landscape since the 2010 program, which was watched by almost 10M, and this one was a feisty affair.

Speaking to a wealth of topics including tax, the National Health Service, education, immigration and even the advice they would give to England soccer manager Gareth Southgate, Sunak appeared to have come out the better via polling and press reports, but only just.

The most eye-catching moment was Sunak’s repeatedly saying Starmer’s opposition Labour Party would raise taxes on working families by £2000 ($2,555), a claim he made several times before it was finally rebuffed by the Labour leader, who is running on a ticket that includes no tax rises for working people. The claim has since been rejected by the Treasury.

Starmer seemed the more nervous but is still miles ahead in the polls. Beyond the £2,000 claim, he may have come away feeling relatively unscathed.

The previous debates came during a bad-tempered election run in the winter of 2019, when Johnson, who was forced to resign three years later over ‘partygate’, ran on the claim of “getting Brexit done,” winning with a landslide.

Another debate will take place in three weeks’ time on the BBC, just a few days before the July 4 election, and in the meantime there are a number of multi-party debates with smaller parties including one on Friday on the BBC.