Gordon Brown Labour David Cameron Conservative Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats20102015 debates → The United Kingdom general election debates of 2010 consisted of a series of three leaders' debates between the leaders of the three main parties contesting the 2010 general election: Gordon Brown, Prime Minister and leader of the Labour Party; David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition and Conservative Party; and Nick Clegg, leader of the third largest political party in the UK, the Liberal Democrats. They were the first such debates to be broadcast live in the run-up to a UK election.
The debates ran without a break for 90 minutes and were broadcast weekly by ITV, BSkyB and the BBC over three successive Thursday evenings starting on 15 April. They were moderated by Alastair Stewart, Adam Boulton and David Dimbleby respectively. The first half of each debate focused on a particular theme (domestic, international and economic affairs), before general issues were discussed. The questions were not disclosed to the leaders before the debate.
In addition to the leaders' debates, on 29 March, the three main parties' financial spokesmen participated in a debate focusing on the economy, with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling debating with the Shadow Chancellor George Osborne and Liberal Democrats' Treasury spokesman Vince Cable on Channel 4. Debates also took place between 19 April and 5 May, a series of debates also took place on the BBC political TV series The Daily Politics, between members of the incumbent Labour Cabinet and their Conservative, Liberal Democrat counterparts and representatives from the Green Party, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the UK Independence Party.
Debates were also held in Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland, due to the devolved nature of various aspects of government in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland and Wales, representatives of three main parties were joined by respective nationalist party representatives who stand MPs only in Scotland and Wales, while in Northern Ireland, due to the main parties having no seats, debates were held between the four largest Northern Irish parties. The arrangements for the UK-wide leaders debates were criticised for being restricted to the main UK parties excluding other national minor parties and nationalist parties in Scotland and Wales, for covering many domestic matters which are devolved from Westminster, and also for being held in three locations solely in England.
History During the 1960 United States presidential debates, Harold Macmillan told a BBC executive that a prime minister would be foolish to publicly debate a leader of the opposition, as only the opposition would benefit.
A proposal for leaders' debates was first mooted at the 1964 general election when Harold Wilson challenged then Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home to an election debate. Home rejected the proposal on the grounds that: "You'll get a sort of Top of the Pops contest. You'll then get the best actor as leader of the country and the actor will be prompted by a scriptwriter" Wilson himself rejected Edward Heath's proposal for debates, worried about the unpredictability of such a debate and not wishing to give Heath exposure as a potential Prime Minister.
In 1979, James Callaghan became the first incumbent Prime Minister to agree to a debate, but the idea was rejected by Margaret Thatcher on the grounds that presidential-style debates were alien to Britain. The proposed 1979 debates were put forward by former Labour MP turned broadcaster Brian Walden and would have been produced by LWT and shown on ITV on 22 & 29 April 1979. While Callaghan had immediately accepted Walden's proposal, Thatcher decided to "wait a few days before replying", with some of her advisers concerned that she had more to lose from such debates, fearing that it would lead to a "presidential-style 'Her or me' campaign" which would see policy issues become of less important. At the insistence of the Liberals, their leader David Steel was also invited to take part in the debates, and accepted the offer. However on 3 April, Mrs Thatcher wrote to LWT to decline the offer to take part, saying that the election was for a government, not a president, which meant that the debates did not go ahead.
Both Thatcher and her successor as Prime Minister, John Major, rejected Labour leader Neil Kinnock's debate proposal, with Major commenting that "every party politician that expects to lose tries that trick of debates and every politician who expects to win says no."
However at the 1997 general election, Major then called for similar debates, which did not take place as the political parties and the broadcasters could not agree on a format acceptable to all sides in the time available. Since 1997, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown had argued that the weekly Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons was sufficient. For the 2001 general election Tony Blair turned down a debate with William Hague. On 28 April 2005, Tony Blair, Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy took part in a special edition of the BBC's Question Time, although they did not debate directly, and were questioned individually by host David Dimbleby.
The idea of holding leaders debates for the 2010 election was first supported by David Cameron and Nick Clegg, with Gordon Brown later agreeing. In 2009, Sky News began a campaign for leaders debates which was followed by a joint proposal from the BBC, ITV and BSkyB to stage three live election debates between leaders of the three main political parties, one debate for each broadcaster.
On 21 December 2009, agreement was reached between the three main parties and the three broadcasters, BBC, ITV and BSkyB, on the key principles behind holding live election debates for the 2010 election campaign. On 1 March 2010 a set of 76 detailed rules for the leaders debates were announced.
Leaders' debates
Principles and rules The December 2009 key principles agreed were that the three main party leaders would appear together in three separate live television debates, and be given equal treatment. The debates would be held during three weeks of the election campaign, or over two weeks if there was less than four weeks between the election being called and polling day. Each broadcaster would produce one debate using the same format, ITV first from the North West, Sky from the South/South West, and finally the BBC from the Midlands.
Broadcasts would be between 85 and 90 minutes in duration with half focused on a specific theme. There would be no commercial breaks and each debate would take place in peak time. ITV was required to make their transmission available simultaneously online and to radio, and to other television broadcasters immediately after the programme, while BSkyB and the BBC were to make their programmes available to other broadcasters simultaneously.
In March 2010, 76 separate rules governing the programmes were published, along with the names of the members of the three editorial panels which would be selecting audience questions for each broadcaster. The rules specified how the audience was to be selected and presented on television, what role the audience would play in the debate, the structure of the programme, the role of the moderator and the layout of the set. In addition, it specified the three themes and their order: Domestic affairs, International affairs and Economic affairs, drawn by lots by the broadcasters.
Audience and question selection The audience for each debate is made up of around 200 people selected by polling company ICM mainly from within a 30-mile radius of the venue and a broadly demographic cross section of the country. The audience is selected to ensure that at least 80% declare a voting intent, with the final selection to ensure a ratio of 7:7:5 between Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters and also including those showing a voting preference for minor parties.
Each broadcaster's selection panel pre-select the debate questions from suggestions made by the ICM selected audience, as well as selecting a maximum of four questions from suggestions submitted by the general public from around the UK submitted by email and read out by the moderator, or read out in person as an extra audience member. In selecting questions, the panel take into account factors such as the prominence of certain issues in the campaign, the distinctiveness of the different parties' policies on election issues, voters' interest and issues relevant to the role of the Prime Minister.
Programme format The leaders open the programme with a one-minute statement, and close with a one-and-a-half-minute speech, with the questions asked in between. The first part covers the theme subject and in the second half on any other subject. For both the themed and unthemed sections, the pre-selected questions are asked by the audience member, without deviation, and answered by each leader in turn for one minute each. They then have an additional minute in turn to respond to each other's answer. At the programme editor's discretion, following each question, there is a maximum of four minutes of free debate between the leaders. No audience applause is allowed during the programme. In the themed half of the debate, audience members can ask a maximum of three questions on each sub-theme, while in the unthemed portion, a maximum of two questions are allowed on the same subject.
Overview Title Date Channel Location Producer Moderator Main theme Sub-themes Transcript 15 April 2010; 20:30 ITV; audio: BBC Radio 5 Live, LBC 97.3 Granada Studios,Manchester ITV Studios Alastair Stewart Domestic policy National Health Service (England) (NHS); Education; Immigration; Law and Order; Family; Constitution; Trust in politics; Political reformTranscript 22 April 2010; 20:00 Sky News, Sky News HD, Sky3, BBC Two (repeat), BBC News Channel, BBC Parliament (repeat), CNN, Al Jazeera English, Press TV; audio: BBC Radio 4, LBC 97.3 British Sky Broadcasting Adam Boulton Foreign affairs International relations; Afghanistan; Iraq; Iran; Middle East; UK defence; International terrorism; Europe; United States; Climate change; China; International Development Transcript 29 April 2010; 20:30 BBC One, BBC HD, BBC News Channel, BBC World News, BBC Parliament, Sky News, CNN; audio: BBC Radio 4, LBC 97.3 The Great Hall,University of Birmingham BBC David Dimbleby Economic affairs Financing of public services; Taxation; Debt; Deficit; Public finances; Recession; Recovery; Banking and finance; Business; Pensions; Jobs
First Election Debate: domestic affairs Instant polling following the first debate showed Nick Clegg as the winner, with most showing David Cameron came second and Gordon Brown last:
ITV News/ComRes: 43% for Clegg, 26% for Cameron, 20% for Brown Sky News/Fizzback: 37% for Clegg, 32% for Brown, 31% for Cameron Times/Populus: 61% for Clegg, 22% for Cameron and 17% for Brown Sun/YouGov: 51% for Clegg, 29% for Cameron, 19% for Brown Angus Reid Public Opinion: 49% for Clegg, 20% for Cameron, 18% for Brown
Average viewing figures for the debate were , with a peak of , equivalent to a share of the audience of 37%. The BARB produced audience figures indicated that the total television audience for the event on ITV was 9,679,000 viewers. The debates caused a large, immediate, and unexpected impact on opinion polls in favour of the Liberal Democrats, leading to many headlines regarding a 'Yellow Surge'.