Politicians clash over immigration Senior politicians have clashed over immigration during the seven-way debate on ITV1. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: What we need at the moment is a skills strategy. We have not had an industrial and skills strategy, so what we have is we’ve been over-reliant in our economy from overseas workers to fill our skills gap, and they’ve done a tremendous job in doing that and we have needed that, but what we really need is, as employment levels have gone higher again, is we need to really match those skills to give people opportunity to take those jobs.” Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said: “Well, it’s funny Angela Rayner says that because Labour today launched their six key priorities at the general election and didn’t mention the single most important issue affecting the lives of everybody in this country, namely the population explosion caused directly by migration.” Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “We need to heed and listen to people who have genuine concerns about the impact of the movement of population, pressures on public services, but we have to put that in the context of public spending cuts by the Conservatives.” He accused Farage of having been on “a dogwhistle tour of the UK for many, many years and exploiting the anxiety that people have”. We are closing this blog shortly but you can read our debate report here and all our election coverage here. Thanks for following along with us. Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt have clashed again in a second seven-way TV debate, one which also saw representatives from smaller parties turn their attacks on Labour as they seem set for government. Labour’s deputy leader repeatedly saw her answers on subjects including public services and the economy interrupted as Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, accused Labour of wanting to raise taxes, while also saying the party had no economic plans. “You’ve had 14 years to come up with some ideas,” Mordaunt said at one point. Rayner, prompting laughter from the ITV audience, replied: “You’ve had 14 years in government.” In an identical lineup to the first seven-way debate on BBC One, the pair debated alongside: Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats; Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader; Stephen Flynn, the Westminster leader of the Scottish National party; Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Greens; and Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Plaid Cymru leader. Much like the earlier debate, just under a week ago, the sheer number of participants often made events a bit chaotic, as the panellists talked over each other and jostled for airtime. But some themes emerged, including a tendency for Labour to take a degree of criticism from a range of parties, while Farage focused his aim on the Conservatives. Fact check: GDP per capita rose in the first quarter of 2024 In tonight’s ITV election debate Farage said gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has fallen for the last six quarters in a row. He said: “GDP, wealth per capita, has fallen for the last six consecutive quarters.” The PA news agency have fact checked this and report that in the first quarter of 2024, data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that GDP per capita rose to £8,281 from £8,249 in the previous quarter. Before that, it had shrunk every quarter since the first quarter of 2022 when it was £8,393. Candidates’ closing statements Denyer asked whether Labour is offering real change. She said the Green MPs will never stop defending the NHS from privatisation. Mordaunt said Rayner had proved tonight that Labour will put up taxes. If you value your pension, vote Conservative, she said. Cooper said the Lib Dems are offering a “fair deal”. She said that in many places in the UK, voting for the Lib Dems is the best way of getting the Tories out. Rayner said the choice at this general election is simple. She said NHS waiting times will be brought down and streets will be made safer. Vote Labour for change, said Rayner. Flynn said voters should vote SNP to put Scotland’s interest first. Farage said he’d come out of retirement with passion in his heart. He said Starmer will in the election but the question is who will lead the opposition? He means himself. Ap Iorwerth said he was there to offer a positive vision of what Wales could be. He said it was high time that Conservatives were kicked out of power but Labour also need to be held to account. Question: Trust in politics Question: What one change can you make to restore trust in politics? Etchingham gave each of the participants 30 seconds to answer. Cooper said the Lib Dems want proportional representation and devolvement of power to local communities. Rayner said politicians need to bring back ethics and integrity back into politics. Mordaunt said honesty in manifestos and started pointing at the other participants, saying “higher taxes”. Ap Iorwerth said honesty and good judgment in politicians is needed. Denyer said changing voting to a proportional system is what is she would opt for. Flynn said people should vote for who they believe in and hold their politicians to high standards Farage said he would change the voting system, enable more referendums and said the House of Lords is “a disgrace”. Laughter as Rayner and Mordaunt clash in seven-way debate The speedy Peter Walker has already filed his news piece on tonight’s seven-way debate, which you can read here: We’re a little behind on the live blogging but will be bringing some more key moments of the later part of the debate, which has now ended. Mordaunt has repeated her party’s controversial claim that Labour would raise taxes by an average £2,000 per working household. She said: This is not the time to suddenly ramp up taxes on people. Labour are going to do this. What you haven’t been told is what taxes and on what people but the average is £2,000 per working household in this country. People can’t afford that.” The audience applauded when SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn replied: “You know what the public can’t afford, Penny, is any longer, one single day more of a Conservative government which is completely out of touch with reality.” In tonight’s ITV debate Etchingham invited each of the seven participants to ask one question of another participant. Denyer asked Rayner “which of Labour’s u-turns she’s most proud of?”. If Etchingham thought this would not result in unruly behaviour, she was mistaken. Mordaunt also directed her question at Rayner: “You are not going to raise capital gains tax?” Farage asked Mordaunt about migration, while Rayner asked Mordaunt if she would allow Farage into the Conservative party. Farage agreed with the SNP’s Westminster leader that the Westminster electoral system is “broken”. Stephen Flynn said: In my view, you should always vote if you are doing well in life for the politician who will make sure that others get on in life, and if you’re not doing so well in life, you should always vote for the politician who’s going to make things better for you. I think that’s a nice and good starting point in politics. The Westminster system - the way it operates – is broken. It’s been built on failure, Brexit being the most obvious one of recent times. Hold your politicians to high standards and vote for what you believe in.” Farage said: I do agree. The first-past-the-post system has led to the two big parties – well, one was big, not after today’s polls, but there we are – they’re both mushy, sort-of SDP parties in the middle. I would change the voting system. I think the House of Lords is an abomination, the fact that it’s filled up with party donors is a complete disgrace. There must be an elected element. And finally, let’s give the people the ability to call more referendums so they can decide the biggest issue of their lives.” Replying, Flynn said: “I was just surprised that Nigel Farage wants another referendum on Scottish independence. I’m sure there’s a lot of folk back in Scotland who’d be … keen to see that happen.” Farage quipped: “Oh come on, you don’t want to lose again, do you?” Etchingham tells Farage that Suella Braverman has spoken warmly of him and she has said that the two child benfit cap should be removed. Farage says he thinks we should be encouraging people to have families and would be in favour of a tax benefits for married people. Etchingham asks if Farage is saying the two child benefit cap should be removed and he says: “We’ve got to help people.” Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper told the seven-way ITV1 debate: Penny Mordaunt has said the Conservatives haven’t put tax up but really? “I mean of course they’ve put tax up. They have frozen the personal allowance (so) people were dragged into paying a higher rate of tax – that’s an invisible tax increase by the Conservatives, but the fact is the cost of living crisis has been made so much worse by the mini-budget which blew a hole in the public finances and made people’s rent and mortgages go absolutely sky high and people have felt that and they are still trying to recover now.” Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth accused the Conservatives of “mismanagement” and said: They missed the opportunity to invest in economic growth in order to help our communities during those years when interest rates were low. What they chose to do is have this ideological drive to cut public spending that hit everybody, especially those who are poorest.” He asked “where is the ambition” in Labour and Conservative general election proposals. A vote for the Tories is now a vote to enable a Labour government, says Farage A vote for the Tories is now a vote to enable a Labour government, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said in a flip of Conservatives’ campaign rhetoric. As the political panellists were given a chance to ask each other questions, Farage cited the Conservatives’ record on migration in a question to Penny Mordaunt, asking: “Why on earth should anybody believe the fifth manifesto that promises cuts to net migration?” Mordaunt replied: “Because of the record of this prime minister.” After being laughed at by the audience for this answer, the Conservative frontbencher warned: “Nigel is a Labour enabler. He is enabling no cap, no target, and no plan.” Farage responded: I don’t believe a single word that you say, you have deceived us in the last four manifestos. I don’t believe you at the fifth. And as for being a Labour enabler, we are now ahead of you in the national polls. A vote for you is actually now a vote for Labour.” Question: Poverty and cost of living Question: I’ve worked in housing for 32 years. Why am I working every day with individuals and families that never thought they’d struggle and now rely on food banks and are at serious risk of homelessness? Farage blames the “population explosion” again. He says more houses need to be built and “take the poorer people out of tax”. He wants to increase the tax threshold to £20,000. Ap Iorwerth says the UK is rich but unequal. He says war and global conditions exacerbated the cost of living crisis but also references Trussonomics. Flynn says what concerns him is what comes next: “the status quo consensus in Westminster is for £18bn public sector cuts isn’t it Angela?” Cooper says the Lib Dems were the first party to call for a windfall tax. They would spread free school meals to every child living in poverty and invest in farmers so the cost of healthy, locally grown food is reduced. Rayner talks about building more homes and social housing. She also references Labour’s GB Energy plan. Mordaunt says she thinks this is the issue of the election. What is needed now is to cut tax so people can keep more of their money, she says. Denyer wants to tax millionaires and billionaires, raise minimum wage to £15 and lift the “cruel” two child benefit cap. Rayner calls the Rwanda scheme a “gimmick”. Mordaunt asks what exactly Labour will do instead and says Starmer couldn’t answer the question at the Labour manifesto today. SNP"s Flynn says it is "shameful" Labour won"t seek to rejoin EU Angela Rayner faced calls of “shameful” from Stephen Flynn when she suggested Labour would not seek to rejoin the EU. An audience question from Ken from Caerphilly asked the political parties if they would seek to rejoin the EU or single market. “No,” Rayner said and suggested Labour respected the result of the referendum. “Shameful, shameful,” Flynn could be heard to say. He later added that his party would “yes absolutely” seek to rejoin, as did the Greens, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru. For the Tories, Mordaunt added: “No, and if you have a Labour government they will take you back in, they will tie you on defence, on migration, on regulation, without any of the benefits of membership.” Farage said: “No, we are free. Unfortunately, we are governed incompetently, but at least they are our mistakes and not somebody else’s.” Etchingham’s wish that the participants will answer uninterrupted has splintered as Mordaunt, Rayner and Cooper argue over migration. “Dear, oh dear,” says Farage. Flynn says people shouldn’t believe Farage when he says migrants are making them poorer. He says Brexit is the biggest problem facing the UK economy, to applause. Politicians clash over immigration Senior politicians have clashed over immigration during the seven-way debate on ITV1. Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: What we need at the moment is a skills strategy. We have not had an industrial and skills strategy, so what we have is we’ve been over-reliant in our economy from overseas workers to fill our skills gap, and they’ve done a tremendous job in doing that and we have needed that, but what we really need is, as employment levels have gone higher again, is we need to really match those skills to give people opportunity to take those jobs.” Reform UK’s Nigel Farage said: “Well, it’s funny Angela Rayner says that because Labour today launched their six key priorities at the general election and didn’t mention the single most important issue affecting the lives of everybody in this country, namely the population explosion caused directly by migration.” Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “We need to heed and listen to people who have genuine concerns about the impact of the movement of population, pressures on public services, but we have to put that in the context of public spending cuts by the Conservatives.” He accused Farage of having been on “a dogwhistle tour of the UK for many, many years and exploiting the anxiety that people have”.