Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are set to go head-to-head in the first televised debate of the General Election campaign.
The two leaders will face off in an hour-long encounter screened live on ITV on Tuesday evening.
The debate has already gathered much attention following a legal battle that sought to have the SNP and Lib Dems involved.
Here's everything you need to know
When is the debate on TV?
Johnson v Corbyn: The ITV Debate will be screened at 8pm on ITV and will last an hour with the ITV Election interviews also set to be broadcast at 10pm.
Who is hosting the ITV debate?
The first televised debate of this election will be hosted by Julie Etchingham, who hosted equivalent events in the 2015 and 2017 general election. She also hosted the Conservative party leadership head-to-head between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
READ MORE: SNP and Lib Dems lose high court challenge against exclusion from television debate
What is the format of the debate?
Johnson v Corbyn will take part in front of a live studio audience of about 200 people.
As part of format agreed with parties and ITV, both Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson will stand behind podiums, Corbyn will be positioned on the left side of the screen and Johnson on the right. They will each have one minute each for their opening statements and 45 seconds for their closing statements, with Corbyn speaking first in both cases after lots were drawn.
Questions asked of the leaders following their opening statements will be selected from ITV viewers.
The stage is set (almost) for the #ITVdebate tomorrow at 8pm pic.twitter.com/PcL6go4U0e
— Erron Gordon (@errongordon) November 18, 2019
Where is the debate and who is leading in polls?
The debate is to be held by ITV at MediaCity in Salford. The Labour leader will be hoping he can give Boris Johnson a bloody nose, with Labour currently trailing in the opinion polls, Mr Corbyn goes into the event hoping for an opportunity to make up ground on the Conservatives. The Prime Minister, who was criticised for his reluctance to debate directly with his rivals in the Tory leadership election, will be seeking to avoid any misstep which hands ammunition to his opponents.
Are there more debates planned?
As well as the ITV debate, there will be a number of other televised political battles. Sky is set to host a three-way debate including Mr Johnson, Mr Corbyn and Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson on November 28.
The next day, the BBC will host a seven-way debate in Cardiff on November 29, between leaders or senior figures from the seven major GB political parties.
ITV will be broadcasting a seven-way election debate on Sunday 1 December.
What are the key topics?
While the questions and the talking points are not yet known, it is a safe bet to state that Brexit will be on the agenda. However, the NHS, the economy and even defence and broadband could all be on the agenda. The character and personal issues of the two leaders may also be brought under scrutiny.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel