Starmer vs. Sunak The Final Debate: Who Won? 

Who else watched this instead of the debate.

I am in my early 60s and retired at 53. Lots of people gave me pushback because they had difficulty grasping the concept of not working if you don’t have to. I looked at my life as stages. I earned everything I have now through a lot of hard work, but I owe it to myself to “stop and smell the roses” in my final stage of life. In my case I left the country after I retired and live in Latin America. It allowed me to get away from all the negative things happening in America while appreciating my new environment. I have yet to meet anyone who regrets retirement.

Between a calm person & a hysterical one, always "bet" on the calm one 😂

Starmer just had not to fail. He did that. Sunak needed a stunning victory....he failed.

Clement Atlee was not charismatic but he was one of our greatest peacetime prime ministers ,

Starmer was cool as a cucumber whereas Sunak was irritable and tetchy.

"Maybe if the Prime Minister would listen, he won't be so out of touch with the country" FLAWLESS VICTORY!

The guy that posed the, ' Is this the best we have to choose from?' question, (Whom was a lifelong tory I might add) Said later he was STILL undecided and wanted a 'Personality' as a PM. Clearly he was a Boris fan. We don't need yet another personality, we simply need a PM that sodding does the job effectively with a team behind them that CAN actually govern! Not much to ask for really is it? After 14 years no-ones seen ANY of that sort of thing going on pretty much at all! If Starmer is grey and uninteresting, bring it on, so long as he does the job.

Sunak came across as an entitled , arrogant , public schoolboy. His comment about buying one’s first home was gut wrenching with absent information . His first flat with his fling was rented at £20,000 a month …..Now where did that money come from….certainly not a chemists shop!

@Alistair. Spot on about how Kier should have answered the "You are not interesting" question. We don't need an interesting PM. We need a competent one

Starmer clearly wanted to stay dignified and look respectable. Sunak was deeply unpleasant. He basically went after the reform vote. I agree with Rory that if you were scoring this as a 6th form debate Sunak would win because he didn’t let Starmer speak, but in terms of likeability and being a decent person Starmer wins and the Yougov data reflects that.

I thought Michelle Hussain was in Sunak's camp for a lot of the time. Sad

Sunak adds rudeness and aggression to his already long list of personality disorders. He might have money but he’s a very poor human being.

Rory has such a wealth of experience and his clear thinking is a delight to listen to. I hope he can lend some of his clarity of thought to the next Labour administration.

Sunak's aggressive behaviour reminds me of a comment by Dennis Healey's comment about an aggressive response from Geoffrey Howe. Like being savaged by a dead sheep.

Starmer looked uncomfortable because he kept getting interrupted. He can't answer a damn question when he's getting shouted at by an entitled brat.

I agree with Rory about some kind of cultural change. It seems to me that “we” have been swayed by charismatic tories who have turned out to be self-interested etc etc, and we are now recognising the value of the more honest, less charismatic personality who says he will do the right thing for the country …

Wishing Sunak used rudness, interruptions and pathetic way of using accusations rather than SAYING MIRE THAN TAX REDUCTIONS. He was better before. Now, sadly, he has lost the plot: causing rather than approaching forces, regardless of 'who' is on the opposition, is a very BAD attitude! To me, K S was much, much more honest and believable now!

Why are you giving Sunak any creditability when he constantly lies and lies and lies

Richie was tetchy (and trotted out the tired phrase "crystal clear" SEVEN times!) Starmer was calmer

Sunak is like a broken record. Why can't we close our borders. Answer, Labour will put up taxes by £2000. What's your favourite colour? Answer Labour will put up taxes by £2000.......😂

All I saw in Sunak was an entitled public school boy with no manners shouting over everybody. His only tactic he has is shouting repeated unfounded claims in the hope of scaring voters, very project fear. I dont think any of it changes much, after all the debate events we have had I bet there were not many people were even watching this.

Sunak was aggressive and rude. The fact checkers proved he lied again. The chair of the debate did not shut him up which was annoying.

I don’t agree that the debate was well moderated. The PM was allowed to interrupt far too much. The moderator was not firm enough with him.

American observer here. Can't watch the debates across the pond, so I greatly appreciate having two respectable adults explain the inner workings of UK politics. Cheers guys.

Richi "won" what exactly? Starmer could have sat there and read the paper and ignored it all and that would still have been more persuasive than small-bloke with platinum chip on shoulder.

Watch you and not the debate because I simply can’t bare watching Sunak

Rishi Sunak keeps telling Keir Starmer what Keir Starmer is going to do.. This seems absurd to me.

Sunak was very aggressive and at times looked like a spoiled school child wanting to have his own way all the while, he does not like being told he’s wrong

I think KS is just being sooooo professional in public - weighing and choosing every word he says for any long term possible damage.

Interruptions, speaking over and shouty-shouty debates diminish British politics. The person supervising the debate should have been stronger and keep the PM in check.

We must not forget that Starmer was a human rights lawyer, so of course he cares about people, welfare, poverty etc.

Sunak looked desperate .

Starmer did struggle with the aggressive style of Sunak & seemed uncomfortable at times. But that's a win for me, dignified, under control well mannered. As for Sunak, arrogant, rude smug, entitled & not capable of controlling himself I don't want a Prime Minister like that.

I think it may have been a draw. However, Sunak was deeply irritating trying to talk over Keir and the presenter when it wasn’t his turn to do so.

Mishal Hussain cannot chair debates to save her life. She's a great news reader and I'm sure a lovely person, but by God, she has no charisma or power to put down Sunak when he kept blatantly being disruptive.

Sir Kier looks like a PM now , I wonder if the rishi was being fed lines

When Sunak highlighted specific Labour Councils that had gone bankrupt, Starmer had an easy riposte - Tory-controlled Woking (the worst bankruptcy of the lot). He missed an open goal on that one.

It's amazing to have access to analysis of this quality at the touch of a button. Thank you

Starmer comes across as steady and slightly boring whereas Sunak is shrill and rude. I'm not a labour voter normally but I prefer steady and boring to the shrill politics of Sunak at al. The moderator was useless. I switched off and watched the football instead.

About people not working after Covid- pre Covid I was very self employed and was destroyed by Sunak while all the rest of the population was given money - I’m now required to pay my own debt and through NI - pay for everyone else’s paid holiday- I’ve got serious mental health problems because I was excluded- and now have to pay everybody else’s debt- that’s a no

The more aggresive he gets, the more like a spoiled child Sunak looks.

Yapping, snappy, snarling, chihuahua. That is not Prime Minister material.

Can we have an election to vote out the BBC audience as well - the questions were boring and repetitive and predictable.

Rishi Sunak was like a robot stuck on a tape loop. The same exact line every sentence.

Rory nails it. Sunak appears in his element debating, but comes across as tetchy and condescending.

I think the format was awful yet again. Sunak came across like a spoilt brat, and overly aggressive and this was so off putting. I enjoyed the one candidate v the audience format, it was much more telling and personal. Starmer, when he wasn't interupted by Sunak, came across much more caring and statesman like. Sunak's performance was awful.

Regarding the betting, if you live in the same house as somebody working at a football club (could be a wife/ husband of a club secretary) you are not allowed to bet on football. Meanwhile in British politics…

800k left employment. Early retirement allowed in many state roles such as firemen and NHS management. But also lots of small businesses ( work from home exporters) shut down due to Brexit. Prior to Brexit we had more of these types of business than the whole of the rest of Europe put together.

Mishal Husain was atrocious & blatantly biased in the prime ministers favour too, allowing him to shout over herself & Starmer, whilst also giving him the last say on almost every topic. Woeful mediation.

Darren Jones of Labour is doung a good job of ripping the Tories to shreds on other TV debates. I hope he gets a higher profile in the future

I don't understand how these two individuals are being compared on level ground! One of them has a character we can understand, the other has NO intention of honouring the manifesto he presents. How can any of you dignify this proven liar with your time. The tories will do what they always do, anything else is a lie. If we fall for it, we deserve what we get. The tories have been laughing at you for 14 years. Memento semper

How much does good manners mean for a prime minister?

Who won really depends on whether honesty was a requirement.

Sunak has learnt from other presenters,tv presenters and personalities that interruptions and butting in are the way to go .

I hate that we're expected to judge people by their ability in an adversarial presentation tv show. That doesn't mean they are good leaders.

He is also rude and not very good as a PM, kier was being polite and gentleman

On question of x2 best leaders... Sir Keir missed a trick.His line could have been, I am Labours ELECTED leader, Sunak lost to Liz Truss and was parachuted into the role, in desperation.

Keir Starmer doesn't have to try too hard. Cold, congealed porridge is infinitely better than cold, congealed vomit. I don't want that porridge particularly, I certainly can't get excited about it, but I really don't want yet another bowl of vomit thanks.

Sunak seemed to be channeling his inner Mel Gibson, his favourite rehearsed phrase was "don't surrender". Let's face it Sunak is toast as toast can be. Jools

Nothing about inequalities increasing in almost everything. In Europe we contend with Bulgatia for most unequal.

I haven't watched any of the debates because I can't bear all the shouting and lying. I'd rather hear about it afterwards than spend an evening feeling as if I want to smash the telly, and learning absolutely nothing.

No good winning a debate (by lying) & still being obnoxious!

Im 49 & I’m one of the many who are physically disabled & told I would never work again, I personally think I could work if I got the operation done that I need, I have degenerative disc disease in my lumbar spine & need multi level fusion surgery, the surgeon decided that he wouldn’t do what was needed & try to do bare minimum which hasn’t worked now in more pain than before & on waiting list again for the job to be done properly. There’s a lot of waste happening in our health service from not doing what’s needed to fix people to not doing anything at all, if my surgery was done properly I think as long a pain was managed I could go back to work & this is what tweeds to happen get people healthier so they can get back to work would make this nation better & bring wealth to people instead of just writing them off for good like the situation I’m currently in.

Sunak really alienated me. Shouting and lying are not good debating skills. They are the weapons of a bully.

How anyone watched that debate is beyond me. Why on earth the BBC thought it was a good idea to do the debate next to a protest is beyond me!

Sunak just comes across like a spoiled child and aggressive shouting down any discussion

Mental health is also a key part of the issue that could easily have been raised by both in the question about returning to work. They missed that and it was also a key part of the reaction to the threat to disability support.

something not quite right about all that. Is it my imagination that Sunak seemed to know what the questions were going to be?

I didnt waste my time watching the debate. Instead I watched Georgia stuff Portugal in the Euros! Better to watch this now.

A depressing and calculated display of arrogance and scaremongering from a desperate PM. Absolutely had enough of this behaviour. Time for some humility in politics.

Why Starmer vs Sunak not Labour vs Conservative. Aren’t we voting for party policies not personalities?

Sunak came across again as an entitled boor. Starmer, as a supply teacher on a bad day. However, I'd trust one to take fewer bribes and apply deep thought to mending our benighted country, so I'll stick with him.

As a supporter I used to bet on Carlisle United to loose as it made me feel better most weeks

I was disappointed in Kier’s responses. I think he could have landed far more hits on some of the nonsense that Rishi was spouting. Also, I was quite angry that Starmer didn’t clap back on the stripping of benefits - we tried that with ATOS and look how that turned out. He could also have made more of the fact that he planned on making those with the broadest shoulders pay more, as opposed to the poorest and middle earners being turned upside down and beat with a stick to grab our spare change and the lint from our pockets

The stiffness happens to lots of PMs Look at Gordon brown on the daily show after he left office. Totally different bloke.

To your point, I am here listening to the commentary of the debate rather than having watched the debate. TV debate seems to be a poor quality form of media now and this seems more articulate.

The pictures of Angela Rayner and Penny Mordant laughing backstage at a debate suggests to me that testerone might be an obstacle here!

Rishi had been reported as having a bad attitude behind the scenes. Perhaps this proved it. His smiling on camera was always terribly artificial, and some journalists always wondered why he didn't try to relax and be himself. Not that many politicians ever do, but Sunak raising his voice, interrupting and attempting to interview Starmer to save himself came across as desperate in trying to change focus and a little immature

Just finished the question time episode and popped into RU-vid to see if you were live, Good timing!

Programme shouldn’t be called a “debate”, this was a question and answer session (be it with frequent annoying interruptions from Sunak who sounded quite frankly desperate).

Haven't you noticed, even how the camera pans more on Sunak when he tries to overtalked to Starmer, and the questions BBC chose to push the culture war of the Tories, the debate was abysmally biased.

We learnt what it would feel like to be retired during Covid so many of us retired at 60 as we had occupational pensions. How many of the 800,000 are 60+ though?

SkyNews was overtly pro Sunak with it's 100% biased report so we can deduce Starmer won!

The existence of humanity is on the precipice. There has been almost no mention during the campaign by Labour or the Tories about the environmental crisis.

Very few people were going to watch the debate - maybe because we don’t elect the PM, but we elect a party!

Sunak shouting a project fear campaign was rather a disgusting display for a sitting prime minister. Starmer didn’t cut through with policy properly. Relying too heavily on “another 5 years like the last 14”. I’m not sure Starmer impressed the general public with possibly his best reason why he is PM material. “I got job x, said I do y, succeeded”, etc. My worry one week to go is project fear will land with too many voters.

One of the reasons that so many don't want to go back to work because the basic wages are rubbish and people have realised the whole system is crooked-if you work 40 hours a week and need your wage to be topped up, big business is taking the michael.

40 new hospitals? Thought not!

Well done. Better than watching the debate. Looking forward to watching your C4 election coverage. What a coup for C4. Luckily living in Scotland I don't have to vote for either of them.

Sunak proved that he is no more than a petulant child who likes to get his own way and doesn’t want to hear what anyone else says. I hope that the electorate show Sunak just how disliked he is to all the adults in this country.

Did anyone else hear Sunak say "fuck sake" at one point? Audience was clapping something Starmer said and I could swear I distinctly heard him say "fuck sake" but it was very quiet

Personally, I find that the Prime Minister just comes over really angry and seems very unhappy. Not sure his mental health would be able to cope with winning, so perhaps a labour win is for the best, even for Rishi. 😊

Imagine being in Philip Davies' constituency knowing that whichever way you vote you could be contributing to him getting a sack load of most definitely undeserved wonga.

Why do they bang on about taxes all the time, if you want a good NHS, social welfare for those who need help, better infrastructure, you have to pay taxes! Commentators should be pointing this out to all politicians. Also if you spend time looking back at interviews, as some of us do, interviewers give Labour a much harder time than they do conservatives. I assume that comes from owners of the news outlet.

Wow the BBC is completely inpartial👀👀. I wonder how they manged to pack that clapping crowd. I'm surprised there's that many clapping tories left in the country.

Disabled people with genuine claims lost that debate :(

Why does Starmer do these debates? There is a lot of downside risk and very little upside risk. He is way ahead in the polls… WHY?

Sunak was directly involved is causing the credit crunch, which led directly to austerity, which has led directly to the cost of living crisis and the collapse of public services. That should be Labours attack line.

What the debate showed me is that Sunak is clearly a libertarian. All he has to offer is low taxes (and the Rwanda policy). He made no mention of the things that actually matter to most people, eg health service, education, police, the state of our roads, employment. He wants to give our tax money back to us, so we can pay for these things out of our own pockets. In reality, only the wealthy could afford private health care, private education and private refuse collection. The sooner we are shot of him the better. The only problem is that swathes of England appear to have been fooled by Reform UK, who are cut from the same cloth as Sunak. Will this madness ever end?