Election debate featuring all seven main parties announced

A general election debate featuring the main seven political parties will take place on Thursday, June 13, ITV has announced.

Leaders or senior representatives from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Reform UK, Green Party and Plaid Cymru will all take part.

The programme will start at 8.30pm and run for 90 minutes, with moderation from Julie Etchingham, who also ran debates in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

She is also overseeing the first head-to-head election debate between Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, airing on Tuesday June 4 at 9pm with the title Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate.

The debate will be followed immediately by The ITV Election Interviews presented by Anushka Asthana at 10.10pm.

Michael Jermey, ITV’s director of news and current affairs, said: “ITV’s debate programmes will allow millions of viewers to see and hear the politicians debate the big issues facing the country.

“Many of our viewers tell us they greatly value the TV debates. We’re pleased that ITV will be able to provide a forum in which voters can question the political leaders and in which the politicians can debate directly with each other.”

It comes after the Tories pressed Sir Keir to take part in a record six debates during the election campaign. Labour headquarters has indicated that Sir Keir will take part in two, matching what Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn did in 2019.

The debate is expected to take place in front of a live audience. Audiences are often picked with the help of pollsters to make sure they are politically balanced.

More debates are expected, with the BBC, Sky News, LBC, Channel Four and GB News all believed to be bidding for some form of debate or audience question session with party leaders.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow