The Countdown BBC Election Debate

Welcome to the historic city of Cambridge where in just half

an hour seven political parties will take part in a

We're live in the spin room at the Cambridge Union -

and we're counting down to the start of the BBC Election Debate 2017.

On a glorious and sunny evening in Cambridge.

The historic setting of the Senate House

at the University of Cambridge is the venue for this special event

And here on the BBC News Channel we'll bring you every moment.

Including all the reaction from the spin room afterwards.

Inside the venue the stage is set after several days of preparation.

The neo-classical hall normally used for Graduation ceremonies will host

a mixture of party leaders and senior politicians

from the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats,

SNP, UKIP, Plaid Cymru, and the Greens.

Jeremy Corbyn's last-minute decision to take part was unexpected -

he made that call at lunchtime - challenging Theresa May to join him.

The Prime Minister - visiting the West Country today -

said she preferred to be meeting voters on the campaign trail.

And that she would stick to her guns and not take part in that Cambridge

debate this evening. The audience are now

taking their seats - ready to ask their questions

and weigh up the answers. Caroline Lucas from the Green Party

there and we have just seen Leanne Wood from Plaid Cymru. These are

live pictures now of Jeremy Corbyn the Labour leader. A lot of

applause. As the Labour leader arrives in Cambridge. And he waves

to quite a large crowd of supporters clutching Labour Party banners on

this sunny evening in Cambridge. And this decision from Jeremy Corbyn

very interesting, he had said he would not take part in the debate if

Theresa May was not taking part but had a change of mind. Alongside his

communications chief Seamus Milne. Walking towards the spectacular,

sumptuous venue for this 2017 election debate. So Jeremy Corbyn

against all expectations, a last-minute decision that he would

take part after all and are throwing down the gauntlet as he did to

Theresa May demanding that she would also change your mind and take part

in the debate. But she is insisting that she will not. She would rather

be out and about on the stump meeting voters, she said.

Jeremy Corbyn is there. The debate itself under way in about 25

minutes. With just over a week

to go until polling day, senior figures from the seven main

parties will take questions The BBC's Mishal Husain

will moderate the debate. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

is taking part but the Prime Minister Theresa May will not be

here at the debate. She has said she's busy meeting

voters are also working on Brexit. So Jeremy Corbyn has been speaking

to voters in Cambridge and said that a Labour government would make a

more cohesive society and he urged the Prime Minister to take part in

the Cambridge debate. What kind of society do you want to

live in, are you comfortable that every night there are thousands of

people sleeping on our streets and begging around railway stations. Are

you comfortable that there is such grotesque levels of inequality in

our society and getting worse, or do you want to elect a government that

will do something different with the support of the people. Which will

develop the health, housing, education and provide opportunities

for all. All across the spectrum. So that we have a more cohesive and

coherent society in the future. And for all the cynical commentators,

you know what is happening everywhere I go all over the

country, the rallies are getting bigger, the crowds and enthusiasm

and determination gets bigger. And that gives us a chance to do

something very special on June the 8th. It is very odd that you have an

election campaign where we go out and talk to people all the time and

the Prime Minister seems to have difficulty in meeting anyone or

having a debate. So there is a debate in Cambridge tonight, I do

not know know what she's doing this evening but I invite her to go to

Cambridge and debate policies, debate her record, debate their

plans. And let the public make up their minds. Jeremy Corbyn earlier

in the day throwing down the gauntlet to Theresa May. We have

seen Home Secretary Amber Rudd who was representing the Conservative

Party arriving in Cambridge. The Prime Minister is not taking part in

the debate, she has defended her stance not to be part of the general

election debate and she has said she has been taking questions up and

down the country instead. Laura Kuenssberg has been speaking to the

Prime Minister today and pushed her on why she was not taking part in

the debate. What I have done in terms of our manifesto is to be open

with the British people about the challenges that we face as the

country over the next few years and beyond. And how we will address

those challenges. You talk about the Brexit negotiations, I have set out

clearly what the 12 objectives are for those negotiations. I believe

that is the right thing to do. As we go into those negotiations which

begin just 11 days after election day the question people must ask

themselves is who do they want to see fighting for the UK in those

negotiations, who they want to see taking the country forward, building

a more prosperous Britain for the future. People also have questions

about the practical things that you would actually do if re-elected. Can

you tell us now how would the immigration system work after

Brexit, who would lose their winter fuel allowance, who where would you

set the Caparo social care. Because if you do not there the sense that

you're using these slogans and again but trying to hide behind that and

not telling people what you would actually do. Let's look at the issue

such as winter fuel payments and social care. We have been very clear

with people and open about them about that we face the pressures of

an ageing society and in just ten years there will be 2 million more

people aged over 75 in the country. If we do not do something about the

social care system it will collapse. So we propose a system where people

can protect more of their savings to pass onto their children and will

not happen to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for their care

bills. And there will be a cap on the absolute level of funding they

have to pay. But if you keep repeating broad principles but do

not give details, people will be worried that millions may lose their

winter fuel allowance or the cap on social care might be set at an

extremely high level. People want more from because basically you're

saying on many of these big issues, I will get back to you. What I'm

saying is I will listen to you and I think that is important. You can

approach this in one of two ways. I have set out the broad principles of

our policy, have shown how we will provide a sustainable long-term

social care system for this country which we need because the system

will collapse unless we do something now. What I also saying is I want to

listen to people about where that cap should be put up about where we

should means test winter fuel payments. Listen to the voters and

organisations, charities and others working with older people, consult

with them. I think that is the open thing for government to do. That was

the Prime Minister earlier. Explaining why she is not wanting to

take part in the Cambridge TV debate this evening amongst other things.

But in her place is Home Secretary Amber Rudd who arrived just a few

minutes ago. Stepping out of the car there. A few boos from what looks

like a crowd of Labour supporters. They certainly gave Jeremy Corbyn

quite a warm welcome when he arrived just before Amber Rudd. We have also

seen Tim Farron the Liberal Democrat leader arriving for the debate. And

we had Leanne Wood from Plaid Cymru and also Caroline Lucas from the

Green Party arriving. So all in place. But the Prime Minister

herself is not there because she says she would rather be out and

about meeting voters. Clive is in the spin room where everything will

be digested and poured over a little bit later. It will indeed. It is now

beginning to fill up. I have been here for the last couple of hours

and now the journalists and pundits, the analysts are all here and really

your understanding of what happens this evening in the debate on the

front pages of the newspapers tomorrow, on radio and television,

much of that will be framed in this very room and also some of the

politicians from the seven parties taking part tonight, they are also

here trying to influence some of the copy that the journalists are going

to file. So it will be an interesting place to observe the

debate from here in the Cambridge union building. Just down the road

is our political correspondent Vicki Young to die just a lot of this.

First of all, Theresa May, her decision not to turn up. -- by

jesting a lot of this. If you go back to win the election was called

she was seen as being the front runner. The poll suggested she was

ahead and had everything to lose and that partly is what is at the bottom

of that kind of decision. Why come here to be attacked from all sides.

For Jeremy Corbyn, deciding to join at the last minute, that has changed

that. David Cameron last time chose not to take part in one of these

debates and the difference then was there was no Conservative

representative. So slightly strange debate because everyone ganged up

pretty much on Ed Miliband. But this time Home Secretary Amber Rudd will

be there to the record of government so make it slightly easier for

Jeremy Corbyn. The more he has gone out there, the more relaxed Jeremy

Corbyn has been. He had some hiccups of course forgetting some figures

but generally has looked more at home in these television debates

perhaps than Theresa May. We will have to see how he performs tonight.

We have every party represented so I think it will be a better debate for

that. And probably one of the biggest we are going to have. What

about parties like Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, how important is it

for them given the national stage that they will have tonight, to put

on a good show? It is important and last time around we had Leanne Wood

from Plaid Cymru who would not have been widely known, and people really

liked her when she went on the platform. So it is important to them

because they know they cannot be Prime Minister but they need to get

that stage on Ram Slam television to get across their case. I think

Leanne Wood is the only surviving person from the last, from two years

ago. The line-up has changed completely which shows you what has

happened to British politics. Tim Farron has not done one of these

before in this way and for the Liberal Democrats, many people

talking about a resurgence for the Lib Dems. Today I was in the West

Country with the Prime Minister and the Tories do not think there is

much sign of the Lib Dems coming back there. This is a chance for Tim

Farron who again is not that well known to people because they lost so

many MPs last time around. A chance for him to get across his message.

He will be talking about Brexit and fighting the referendum result. We

saw how will Nick Clegg dig back in 2010 and how this kind of setting

can give someone from a smaller party a bit of a lift. And I think

also for Paul Nuttall, Ukip have not been having a very successful

election campaign. Lots of polling evidence but also the local election

results seeming to show that they were pretty much in freefall. Not

standing in many of their previous seats. This is his chance to come

out from under the shadow of Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage such a big

figure and he has not really managed to break out and make his name. But

I think now Jeremy Corbyn is coming at the last minute, all eyes will be

on him and whether he can perform tonight and get across the message

to a wider audience. Many thanks. Just 15 minutes to go before the

debate begin. We can show you some pictures.

This is how the set for the seven-way debate was created.

Remember that Jeremy Corbyn decided only today that he was going to turn

up. The Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornbury was actually going

to be there in his place but Jeremy Corbyn decided to turn up. We will

bring you the debate in full. At 7:30pm.

With extra on screen graphics on the News Channel showing

the latest reaction from the BBC Reality Check team who will be

They will put graphics on the screen so you can keep a sense of what

exactly is going on. Let's speak to the Culture

Secretary Karen Bradley. The only place to start really with

the Conservatives is the absence of Theresa May. Does that make sense to

you? Theresa May set out her plan for how to run the selection and

work in this election, getting up and down the country to meet the

voters. She has been clear about that. She has travelled thousands of

miles and attended over 60 events. She has taken questions from more

members of the public and the press than Corbyn. It has taken Jeremy

Corbyn six weeks to decide to come today. But what it means is the

public are going to see for the first time what a coalition of chaos

looks like when we see Jeremy Corbyn up on stage with those people who

will be propping him up if there is a hung parliament. In eight days

this is the reality of what the government could look like going

into those Brexit negotiations. We are only missing Diane Abbott and

John McDonnell. The implication for many people is that Theresa May is

not willing to defend not only her record but her manifesto in public

with Jeremy Corbyn. That is not the case, she was on a couple of days

ago and will be on again on TV in another couple of days. She has been

answering questions from members of the public, more than twice the

number of questions that Jeremy Corbyn has taken. He has been in

organised rallies but she has been with ordinary working voters. It has

taken him six weeks to decide to come to this debate tonight and in

11 days after the general election we are going to be going into Brexit

negotiations. Do we want someone there who take six weeks to make up

its mind whether or not to come to a debate. Are people within the

Conservative Party experiencing some jitters because the polls have

changed and there is the sense that perhaps the party is losing

traction. Going into the country at asking the country as a general

election, nothing is guaranteed and the polls get things wrong. They got

the Brexit referendum result wrong and Jeremy Corbyn was a 200 outsider

and became Labour leader so no one has ever relied on the polls. But it

brings home the reality that the Conservatives lose 60 and the

coalition chaos you will see tonight by the people who will be leading

Brexit negotiations with Jeremy Corbyn at the helm. The room is

filling up with journalists and pundits. They will put their own

gloss on the debate which begins in just ten minutes. We will have a

chat with some of our other guests. With me is the Lib

Dem's Brian Paddick. How important is it tonight for the

Liberal Democrats? Many people will not have seen Tim Farron before and

they're going to see a genuine guy who is passionate about these

issues, because he is not from a privileged background. He is going

to stand up to the dementia tax from the Conservatives, to the cuts in

school budgets and the NHS. The fact is you're starting from a very low

base, you have a handful of MPs and do you believe that you can turn

this situation around? The polls are all over the place, overnight we had

one poll showing it is going to be a hung parliament and another showing

a 100 majority to the Conservatives. The thing is targeting our efforts

in key constituencies and by doing that we think we can make

considerable gains. The suggestion was there might be a Liberal

Democrat resurgence. Particularly if you took the policy that you would

try to offer as part of your manifesto a second referendum vote

on the EU on the deal that comes back from Brussels. That does not

seem to have happened. What we're saying is we should not leave the

decision once we know what the details are, to Theresa May, Paul

Nuttall and Jeremy Corbyn. We should actually give that decision to the

people. And whether people voted to remain or to leave, they will have

the decision once we know what the details are. And we think once

people get the message, because many people still have not heard that

message, Tim gets the message across today and we think that that will

have an effect. And the South West in particular where perhaps you hope

to make inroads in the local elections, that did not happen

either. The difficulty with the South West is that it voted

predominantly to leave. And therefore the initial impact of that

message is not working, has not worked in the south-west. But when

people realised that we're not saying you cannot decide at the end

of the day, the people cannot decide, at the end of the day. Thank

you very much. And Shannon Merry from the Queen city. This kind of

exposure is crucial for a small party like your party? Caroline

Lucas is one of the most credible politicians and incredibly

hard-working. What we will see tonight from their will prove to

people but we need more MPs from the wing party in Parliament. Many

people will be deciding to vote Green tonight. And the idea of the

Progressive Alliance, has that taken root in the country? Not amongst the

party leaders we have reached out to but I think there is a grassroots

movement. People looking at where they can make their vote make a

difference and focus their campaigning efforts on areas where

there are marginals where we could change the result on day. We have

been influential pushing the idea of working together in a more

cooperative way. I hope that that will carry on in opposition. Why do

you think it has not taken off in the way you hoped? On the grassroots

I think it has. Looking at the number of people signed up and

looking at the various tactical voting websites. And the idea that

politics needs to get a bit more grown-up. It should not be about

childish arguments we have seen in the Brexit debate. People want to

get into the details of this and discuss policy in a much more mature

way and have the parties working together where they can. I think

that idea is going to carry on for many years to come. Let's turn out

to Ukip. Paul, you are starting from a low base and have no MPs

whatsoever now. What does pull Marvel have to do? What he has been

doing, talking about the issues facing the majority of people in the

country. We may not have any MPs but this whole election which has been

framed by Theresa May around Brexit is as a result of the victory won

last year by Ukip in the referendum. You could have demonstrated more

than any other party, we have challenged the political

establishment and changed the political direction of this country.

We will keep talking about the issues that resonate with voters

across the country and we look forward to doing that. We saw what

happened with the Stoke election, not performing perhaps as well as

the party hope, why do you think that the message is not getting

across? I think Paul performed well in Stoke but the problem was the

expectation was set incredibly low by the Labour Party. I hear they're

already talking about a Jeremy Corbyn victory just by dint of the

fact that he is turning up. So we performed as well as we expected to.

But we still increased on our vote share from where we were in 2015.

Something to take some excitement from. We will keep doing that across

the country and I'm sure we will have some interesting results. Now

Plaid Cymru, thank you for being with us. This is an important stage

for you because you can get out your message to a national audience.

Absolutely and the only reason you're asking about Wales tonight is

because Plaid Cymru is here. And it is up to the people of Wales to

decide where they want to be after this campaign is over. So we need to

elect a strong Plaid Cymru to ensure that Wales is going to be on the UK

agenda into the future. Leanne Wood has made a great impression in

previous television debates. Her sincerity shines through and that is

something that people will see across the UK. What do you think the

perception is going to be of Theresa May not turning up? I think it is

quite cynical for the party leaders to use this debate for their own

means tonight. Theresa May called the election but does not want to be

held accountable for her policies. And Jeremy Corbyn changing his mind

at the last minute, trying to make political capital. People want

politicians to be upfront and turn up and allow themselves to be

scrutinised. And Leanne Wood is standing up for Welsh interests.

Thank you all. Sam Coates, Deputy Political Editor

of The Times and George Eaton, Political Editor of the News

Statesman. What you expect tonight? Jeremy

Corbyn, that is the big surprise. A lot will ride on that. The dynamics

will be slightly awkward. Because Theresa May is not there. A lot of

the debate will be taken up by criticising her decision not to

fight Jeremy Corbyn and turn up tonight. Does that make a

difference, I'm not so sure. Really whether or not Jeremy Corbyn can

shine against his opponents, those on the left and the ride, and

whether he can continue to perform well in the media. One feature of

this election has been the way that many smaller parties have seen their

vote really disappear and all go to the Labour Party if they were

left-leaning orchard to the Conservatives for Ukip. So there is

a danger of a Jeremy Corbyn that by appearing alongside them and giving

them a platform, he may not perform as well or see some of those votes

backfire. So there is a risk free him and the Conservatives will try

to present this as a coalition of chaos that would need to propel

Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. George, what about the smaller

parties, how important is this for them? Very important because what

we've seen recently is the dominance of the main parties. There was talk

of an end to the 2-party system. So the Lib Dems had a bad campaign and

they need to break through tonight. You can expect to see them try to

tie Jeremy Corbyn to the Tories and Ukip by saying that he backs Brexit.

The Greens also take an anti-Brexit stands and you can expect Ukip to

try to hammer Jeremy Corbyn on immigration. Labour have said they

would go along with the end of free movement but not how much they would

like to reduce immigration by or how they would achieve that goal. Thank

you. I should tell you that we are going to have live graphics shown on

the BBC News Channel coverage of the debate tonight. And also we will

have our reality check team checking all the information and the facts

and figures that are given by the panellists. That will be an added

dimension to the BBC News channel coverage. But all starts in about 45

seconds or so about the Senate house. This of course is the spin

room. All the debate and analysis and all the reaction we will bring

to you after the debate and around nine o'clock. So coming up, the most

important perhaps some would say and certainly the largest debate in this

campaign with just under seven days, eight days to go before polling day

on June the 8th. Here now is the BBC Election Debate life with Mishal