Sir Keir Starmer beat Rishi Sunak by 44% to 39% in Tuesday night’s campaign debate, according to a new poll from Savanta conducted entirely after the clash concluded on ITV.
It contrasted with a snap poll done during the debate by YouGov which scored Prime Minister Sunak on 51% to 49% for the Labour leader, as the two leaders went head to head for the first time ahead of the general election on July 4.
Savanta said that on the issues, its survey respondents gave Sir Keir wins on immigration (45% to 37% for Mr Sunak) and on defence and security (43% to 41%).
The Labour leader was well ahead on the NHS and public services (63% versus 25%), plus the economy and cost of living (52% to 36%).
“According to our overnight panel, Starmer wins on the detail, but Sunak is much closer in the most important 'who won the debate' metric," Savanta’s Political Research Director Chris Hopkins said.
“Presentationally, it felt like the Prime Minister had the upper hand at times - in particular towards the end of the debate - and although our figures suggest he lost narrowly, he probably still outperformed expectations,” he said.
Sir Keir also beat the PM on every personality-based question posed by Savanta, including: who came across as most honest (54% to 29%), who gave the most thoughtful answers (53% to 35%) and who remained the calmest (51% to 36%).
Mr Sunak came into the debate under pressure to come out firing, on the back of big surveys by YouGov and More In Common that pointed to a drubbing for the Tories in four weeks’ time. He did that by repeatedly alleging that Labour plans a £2,000 tax raid on British households.
Sir Keir was slow to counter the claim during the debate, before branding Mr Sunak the “British expert on tax rises” and insisting his rival could not be trusted after 14 years of Tory rule.
Commenting on the tax claim, Labour shadow frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News on Wednesday morning: “That is a desperate lie by Rishi Sunak.”
On other issues, the PM was jeered by the audience for claiming that NHS waiting lists are coming down.
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho conceded on BBC Breakfast that they had gone up from when Mr Sunak promised to cut them, but insisted that the Tory tax claims were justified by Treasury costings.
