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Election debates: Party leaders' TV debate schedule revealed

No debates between David Cameron and Ed Miliband alone have been set up

Saturday 21 March 2015 18:25 GMT

Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrats, Ed Miliband, Labour, and David Cameron, Conservatives (PA, Reuters)

The schedule of televised debates between party leaders ahead of the general election in May was announced today.

A live debate between leaders of seven major parties will take place on 2 April on ITV.

It will include David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, Natalie Bennett, Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Show all 9

1/9The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Chloe Smith on Newsnight

George Osborne was enjoying a good day as he scrapped a planned 3p rise in fuel duty in June, 2012. But then someone had the bright idea of putting Chloe Smith, a junior Treasury minister and then something of a rising star for the Tories, on Newsnight. But she was unable to convincingly answer a single question posed to her by Jeremy Paxman, even the ultimate killer blow: “Do you ever think you’re incompetent?”

BBC

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Boris Johnson on Andrew Marr

Eddie Mair, standing in for Mr Marr during his stroke recovery, might have been seen as something of a soft touch in March 2013 before he destroyed the London Mayor on the BBC’s flagship Sunday current affairs show. Mair presented a series of anecdotes about the harsher side to the fluffy-seeming Mr Johnson’s rise to power and concluded: “You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?” Boris didn’t quite seem to know how to respond.

PA

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Diane Abbott on This Week

In the run-up to the Labour leadership contest in 2010, Ms Abbott was left saying “no, no, no, no, no” in response to Andrew Neil’s persistent grilling on whether she thought West Indian mums loved their children more, as she appeared to have previously stated.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Michael Howard on Newsnight

It’s become a bit of a cliché, but the interview Jeremy Paxman will most be remembered for is his roasting of Michael Howard on the question of a meeting with Derek Lewis, the head of Her Majesty’s Prison Service. “Did you threaten to overrule him?” he asked. Then: “Did you threaten to overrule him?” And so on a total of 14 times. It left a memorable impression in 1997 – though later Paxman admitted he was just playing for time because the next segment wasn’t ready.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Ed Miliband on Good Morning Britain

Labour’s leader faced some slightly inevitable accusations of being “out of touch with reality” from ITV’s Susannah Reid after she surprised him with a “how much does X cost question”. This time it was during an interview on how much he knew about his much-vaunted “cost of living crisis” – and Mr Miliband underestimated the average household grocery bill per week by about a third. He admitted he was wrong – but later tried to wriggle out of the situation by claiming he was only referring to “basic groceries” not his “overall shopping bill”.

PA

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Rachel Reeves on Daily Politics

The shadow Work and Pensions Secretary got very mixed up on whether Labour were promising “a freeze or a cap” – when energy prices actually stopped rising and fell. Refusing to accept that her party had enacted a u-turn on policy, she said: “It wasn’t us who changed – it’s the world that changed.” She later couldn’t give any examples of retail prices being successfully fixed by governments – stumping for “the minimum wage – the price of labour”.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

David Cameron on Gay Times

Grilled on his MEPs’ voting records on gay rights in the European Parliament, a pre-prime ministerial Mr Cameron suggested they could vote any way they liked. But he also said the right not to suffer discrimination based on sexuality was a fundamental human right – meaning it should not be subject to an open vote. The former PR man got so flustered he had to ask for the cameras to be turned off because he was getting “distracted”.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Nigel Farage on LBC

Nigel Farage’s image as a plain-speaking, not-like-that-lot-in-Westminster politician suffered one of a number of dents in May 2014, when a tense 22-minute confrontation with LBC’s James O’Brien had to be cut short by his spin doctor. Patrick O’Flynn – who is now an MEP for Ukip – had to step in when Mr Farage was repeatedly questioned on his views on race and why he would be uncomfortable if a group of Romanian nationals moved in next door to him.

The 9 worst car crash interviews in recent politics

Nigel Farage with Nick Robinson

The Ukip leader was left chasing his tail outside Parliament in 2014 after Nick Robinson strong-armed him into logically admitting that a UK national could work as his secretary - a job that he currently employs his German-born wife to do.

Two live interviews are set up for Cameron and Miliband to be jointly broadcast on Channel 4 and Sky the week before the seven-way debate. They will each answer questions separately.

Although a debate a week before polling day on 7 May has been set up between Clegg, Cameron and Miliband, no head-to-head discussions with the leader of the Labour party have yet been agreed to by the Prime Minister.

Jeremy Paxman will be grilling leaders with tough questions

26 March: Live question and answer programme on Channel 4 and Sky News featuring David Cameron and Ed Miliband separately, presented by Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burley

2 April: Debate with seven party leaders on ITV, moderated by Julie Etchingham

16 April: Debate between five opposition party leaders on the BBC, moderated by David Dimbleby

30 April: BBC Question Time programme with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg, presented by David Dimbleby

The last televised pre-election debates in 2010 attracted audiences of up to 22 million people, according to the BBC.

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