BBC presenter Mishal Husain has told how she will “halt” Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer in the final TV showdown if she needs to do so.
With the stakes so high, just days before the July 4 polling day, the Prime Minister and Labour leader are expected to clash in the BBC’s Prime Ministerial Debate in Nottingham on Wednesday evening.
Ahead of the crunch debate, Husain explained how she will handle the night, including how the audience had been selected.
“We will say this at the beginning of the programme, for maximum transparency, and also explain why the two men are standing where they are and the order in which they will deliver their closing thoughts. Spoiler - it’s a coin toss,” she said.
“Once we’re into the flow, the debate will run straight through, for an hour and a quarter.
“Where necessary, I will be nudging the two men back to what was in the question, clarifying points, and yes, probably having to call a halt from time to time.”
She stressed it was a “privilege” to be asked to “referee” the debate.
“But I know it won’t be easy and there have been times I’ve wished someone else was at the helm and I could watch from my sofa. But those moments pass,” she added.
“These events come around rarely and have a very special quality - at their heart is democracy unfiltered, where people can speak directly to those who have power and those who seek it.”
Husain has moderated two seven-way leaders’ debates before, in 2017 and earlier this month.
She won praise for the way she oversaw the most recent one involving Reform UK’s Nigel Farage, Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn of the Scottish National Party, Carla Denyer of the Green Party and Rhun ap Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru.
“Each time there are different complexities, and while you prepare by honing your knowledge of each party’s key policies - and their points of difference - you also want spontaneity and energy,” Husain emphasised.
“A proper debate, really, rather than speech-making.”
The live audience has been chosen by polling firm Savanta, not the BBC, and includes Conservative and Labour backers, and undecided voters.
Ms Husain continued: “I can’t predict how the overall tone will be, because that depends on the debaters, for whom these 75 minutes carry both opportunity and risk.
“They will not know what questions are coming, and the experience will be exacting and possibly, exposing.
“But it is also a route through which they can reach millions of people - some of them yet to decide how they will cast their vote.”
