Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer set for first General Election debate on STV

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer are set to go head-to-head in their first televised debate of the General Election campaign live on STV.

The hour-long debate, produced by ITV, will be moderated by Julie Etchingham and will see the Prime Minister and the Labour leader cross-examine each other before taking questions in front of a studio audience.

The debate will be shown live on STV and STV Player on Tuesday, June 4 at 9pm.

Sunak and Starmer have been urged to use their first head-to-head of the election campaign to lay out their plans to address high levels of poverty, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said.

It comes ahead of election day on July 4, with the latest poll suggesting Labour is on course for the biggest victory in the party’s history, surpassing Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide.

The party looks set to win as many as 422 seats, with the Tories reduced to just 140, according to a YouGov analysis.

Tuesday’s clash comes after the leaders of Scotland’s four main political parties tussled with each other in the first televised debate of the election on Monday evening.

Moderated by STV political editor Colin Mackay, the leaders of the SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats took part in the event at STV’s headquarters in Glasgow.

The cost of living crisis, oil and gas licences, EU membership and the NHS were among the issues raised.