Closing summary
As mentioned earlier, tonight’s BBC general election TV debate featuring politicians from Northern Ireland’s five main parties has finished. There were no closing remarks from the politicians, instead Tara Mills closed the debate by thanking all those involved, including the audience for their questions and remarks.
The main topics of the night’s debate were health, trust in politics, the union and Israel-Gaza. Here are some of the key lines from each of the five who were behind the podiums this evening:
DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, denied there would be a cut of £184m to the health budget and said the DUP had highlighted that “Northern Ireland doesn’t get sufficient funding to provide public service that we need”.
“We would far rather government had not come down at all and people recognise this place works properly and positively on the basis of consensus,” said Robinson. He added that the DUP wants to “build on the good progress we have made” which “would not have been made without our stance”.
Alliance party leader, Naomi Long, clashed with Robinson, stating that there’s no doubt that the collapse of the Assembly has “damaged our public services … and public confidence”. Long said that “it has damaged public confidence, because people now know our Stormont as it stands today is no more stable than the day before it collapsed the last time”.
.@naomi_long “People are not waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat worried about the border. But they are worried if they can pay their bills, if they can get their children into school or if they are able to get an appointment with their doctor”#BBCNIDebate #GE24
— Alliance Party (@allianceparty) June 27, 2024
Long said her party “want to be part of the conversation about constitutional change”. She added: “We are open to those conversations but what we are not going to do is vote along ideologically-driven lines”.
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), said health was the “number one topic on the doorstep”. He said abstentionism in Stormont had affected health services, stating that the UUP “didn’t take their players off the pitch”.
“When some parties don’t get their way they take their players off the pitch…
— Ulster Unionist Party (@uuponline) June 27, 2024
“The Ulster Unionist Party will not make people suffer for political folly.”
- @RobbieButlerMLA #BBCNIDebate #GE24
Butler also said that the “state of the mental health of the nation is in the pits because of the politics”. He said mental health services are a main focus for the UUP in Westminster but says “consistent government” in Stormont is required.
SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood, said “there isn’t enough money in Stormont” and that the health service is “at the point of collapse”. He said that although the SDLP are happy to work with other parties the decisions are being taken at Westminster. He said Northern Ireland needed to go with “one single voice and ask the British government to properly fund this health service”.
SDLP Leader @columeastwood tells @BBCnireland Leaders' Debate:
— The SDLP (@SDLPlive) June 27, 2024
"We need to go with one single voice and ask the British government to properly fund this health service because it absolutely has collapsed. We need a Marshall Plan, real leadership and real resource."#BBCNIDebate pic.twitter.com/Q6VNNsJXDm
Eastwood also said he was “all for more fiscal powers” but questioned how the public could trust politicians with it if “we can’t even commit to staying in government”. “The first thing politicians around here tonight can do is all commit to not bring Stormont down again, but they won’t do it,” said Eastwood.
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard said that there was an understanding that after 14 years of Tory austerity that public services have been “absolutely devastated”. Hazzard said that one of the most significant developments was that the British government had finally recognised that Stormont has been underfunded.
When asked if he would visit the White House next year if US president Joe Biden is re-elected and the Israel-Gaza conflict is ongoing, Hazzard said his party “will continue to go wherever we need to go to be the voice of the Palestinian people where their voice needs to be heard”.
Updated
Question four: Israel-Gaza conflict
Danny from Armagh asks the fourth question of tonight’s debate.
Question four: “Has taking sides in the conflict in the Middle East become another divisive form of identity politics or do you feel it aligns with national interests?”
Colum Eastwood says he went to Gaza 12 years ago and saw the “devastation wrought upon ordinary people … by the Israeli government”. He says he’s “looking at a genocide unfolding before his very eyes”. He says he wants to be in the next parliament to stop the British government sending arms and components of arms to Israel.
When asked if he will visit the White House next year if US president Joe Biden is re-elected and the Israel-Gaza conflict is ongoing, Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard says his party “will continue to go wherever we need to go to be the voice of the Palestinian people where their voice needs to be heard”. Tara Mills says many of Sinn Féin’s supporters were aghast at the party’s St Patrick’s day visit to the White House.
Naomi Long responds by saying that although she didn’t go to the White House celebrations this year, she isn’t going to dismiss the “value of it either”. She says she wants to see international law upheld.
Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), says he thinks it’s wrong that when political leaders talk about Israel-Gaza that they don’t think about the antisemitisim faced by the Jewish community in Northern Ireland and across the world.
Robinson says there should be a ceasefire and a release of hostages. He adds: “What’s going on at the moment is a human tragedy. I can see very clearly there should be a ceasefire and the hostages should to be returned to their families.”
Robbie Butler says it is a humanitarian disaster. He says a dialogue is needed and there has to be a two-state solution.
Updated
Naomi Long says although good projects are being funded, this would also have been the case under European funding.
UUP deputy leader Robbie Butler says politicians should make Northern Ireland “work to take that into a more prosperous future”.
Long and Robinson disagree on whether levelling up funding has benefitted Northern Ireland
In answer to the third question and on the prospect of a united Ireland, Colum Eastwood says “this for me is a very attractive proposition … This place is an economic basket case.”
DUP leader Gavin Robinson says he accepts that Northern Ireland is “chronically underfunded” by Westminster, but says it benefits from “being part of the fifth largest economy in the world”. He highlights the NHS, pointing to costs attached to accessing things like healthcare “over the border”.
Naomi Long disagrees on Robinson’s point about levelling up funding having benefited Northern Ireland. She says it’s been an “unmitigated disaster”.
Updated
As you may have noticed, we’re running a bit of a delay. The live debate has now finished. There will be a few more updates and then we’ll head to the closing remarks from the five politicians.
Question three: The union
Joel from Belfast asks the third question of the evening.
Question three: “All parties and the British government acknowledge this place has been historically underfunded. So what’s the point in being part of the union?”
Naomi Long answers first. She the Alliance party doesn’t sit on the fence and is “in favour of a united community in Northern Ireland”. She says their priority is to “reunite people in Northern Ireland”.
Long says her party “want to be part of the conversation about constitutional change”. She says: “We are open to those conversations but what we are not going to do is vote along ideologically-driven lines”.
Updated
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), is also asked by Tara Mills where the leader of his party is this evening. He says Doug Beattie had “other arrangements”.
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard is repeatedly asked by Tara Mills where Michelle O’Neill is this evening. Hazzard says she’s busy on the campaign trail.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says “it’s very hard” for the public to trust political leaders “when two of them aren’t even here”. He said at the UTV debate, there were two missing then also. He says he “just doesn’t understand that”.
“The first thing politicians around here tonight can do is all commit to not bring Stormont down again, but they won’t do it,” says Eastwood.
Collapse of the Assembly has 'damaged our public services … and public confidence', says Naomi Long
Naomi Long disagrees with Robinson that progress has been made from the collapse of the Assembly. She says there’s no doubt that the collapse of the Assembly has “damaged our public services … and public confidence”.
She says that “it has damaged public confidence, because people now know our Stormont as it stands today is no more stable than the day before it collapsed the last time”.
Updated
Question two: Trust in politics
The second question of the night comes via Carmen from Belfast.
Question two: “How can the leaders possibly ask the public to trust them again after years of political breakdown and controversy?”
Tara Mills turns to Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), and says the DUP’s slogan “making NI work” is a bit rich as the party suspended government for two years. He says he doesn’t accept it and thinks it’s inappropriate of Mills to put it that way. The audience laughs at his reponse.
“We would far rather government had not come down at all and people recognise this place works properly and positively on the basis of consensus,” says Robinson. He adds that the DUP wants to “build on the good progress we have made” which “would not have been made without our stance”.
Updated
Naomi Long says that any time the health minister tries to progress, parties take up placards opposing any changes or reform to the health service. She says “we have a notional health service, not a national health service in Northern Ireland”.
The DUP leader Gavin Robinson says the health service could consume every pound that “we have” but that that “there are serious and signifcand challenges that need to be made”.
Robbie Butler says 'state of the mental health of the nation is in the pits because of the politics'
Robbie Butler says the “state of the mental health of the nation is in the pits because of the politics”. The UUP deputy leader says he was the first mental health champion as a politician.
He says mental health services are a main focus for the UUP in Westminster but says “consistent government” in Stormont is required.
The audience respond to the politicians with a couple of members saying they don’t want to hear about money and statistics, they want to hear about tangible policies. One lady speaks about struggling mental health services.
Colum Eastwood asks how the public will trust politicians with it if 'we can’t even commit to staying in government'
Chris Hazzard says that they need to be able to invest long term if they want to make long term transformations. The Sinn Féin’s MP candidate says: “If we want to transform our health service, if we want to transform public infrastructure, if we want to transform public services long-term, we need the ability to invest long-term.”
Colum Eastwood says he is “all for more fiscal powers” but asks how the public will trust politicians with it if “we can’t even commit to staying in government”. There is a big round of applause to this from the audience.
Naomi Long says other parties won’t sign up to propsals to reform the institutions so they would not be able to be collapsed by any single party.
Updated
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says “there isn’t enough money in Stormont” and that the health service is “at the point of collapse”. He says the SDLP are happy to work with other parties as the issue is so important, but adds: “Where are these decisions being taken? At Westminster.”
“We need to go with one single voice and ask the British government to properly fund this health service,” says Eastwood.
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP), says health is the “number one topic on the doorstep”.
He’s interrupted trying to answer, but says he agrees that the “chronic underfunding of the health service is absolutely important”. Abstentionism in Stormont has also really affected health services, says Butler. He says the UUP “didn’t take their players off the pitch”.
Butler adds: “The budget doesn’t take into account this year’s pay rise for hard working staff.”
Updated
Mills asks where the devolved government’s plan is to cut waiting lists and transform services. Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance party, says it is for the Department of Health and the minister of health to have a plan. She says it is for them to bring a plan to the devolved government.
She also takes issue with the £184m quoted. Long says all departments should be funded fairly if “we’re to have a healthier, happier and safer society”. She compares the budget increases of health and education against the amount for justice.
Updated
Tara Mills asks DUP leader Gavin Robinson where he is cutting the £184m that Kellie mentioned. He denies that there will be a cut of £184m to the health budget. Robinson says the figure quoted comes from the end of the year last year rather than at the start.
Robinson says the DUP have highlighted that “Northern Ireland doesn’t get sufficient funding to provide public service that we need”. He adds that there has been an allocation of £450m to the Department of Health, which Robinson says is half of a £950m additional funding for Northern Ireland.
Updated
Question one: Health service budget
Question one: How do the parties justify voting to cut the health service budget by £184m?
Kellie from Belfast, in the audience, asks the first question of the debate.
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard answers first. He says there is an understanding that after 14 years of Tory austerity that public services have been “absolutely devastated”. Hazzard says that the most significant thing is that the British government has recognised that Stormont has been underfunded.
Updated
Northern Ireland politicians general election TV debate begins
BBC journalist Tara Mills opens the debate from Belfast. She explains that all the leaders of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland were invited to take part in tonight’s debate.
Updated
Speaking at a Reform UK event in Boston with party leader Nigel Farage, chairman of the party Richard Tice said that the racist comments discovered by a Channel 4 investigation during the Reform campaign were “inappropriate”.
Tice said:
We put a statement out and it’s all self-explanatory in the statement.
The reality is that we’re a fast-growing movement, and when you’ve got unpaid volunteers, some people behave inappropriately. And they’re gone.”
Speaking at the Hubberts Bridge Community centre in Boston, Lincolnshire, with local candidate Richard Tice, about candidates Farage said that his party is not “perfect”. According to the PA news agency, Farage said:
We’ve had one or two candidates that have said things they shouldn’t have said. In most cases they’re just speaking like ordinary folk.
They’re not part of the mainstream political Oxbridge speak, we understand that. In some cases one or two people let us down and we let them go.
Well, compare that to the international price fixing and betting ring that is the modern day Conservative party.”
In less than half an hour politicians from Northern Ireland’s five largest political parties will take part in a general election TV debate. The five taking to the podiums this evening are:
Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP).
Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin MP candidate.
Colum Eastwood, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP).
Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance party.
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP).
According to the BBC, the five politicians have all arrived and are getting ready. Audience members have also been taking their seats, with some of them preparing to ask questions which each of the politicians will then take turns answering.
Nigel Farage says he is 'dismayed' by Reform campaigner comments
Reform UK leader and Clacton candidate Nigel Farage has reacted to footage recorded by an undercover reporter working for Channel 4. In the footage, Reform UK canvasser Andrew Parker spoke about migrants coming ashore at Deal in Kent, used a racial slur against Rishi Sunak and labelled Islam a “disgusting cult”.
Responding to the report, Farage said in a statement:
I am dismayed by the reported comments of a handful of people associated with my local campaign, particularly those who are volunteers. They will no longer be with the campaign.
The appalling sentiments expressed by some in these exchanges bear no relation to my own views, those of the vast majority of our supporters or Reform UK policy. Some of the language used was reprehensible.
Reform UK is a party for everybody who believes in Britain. I am proud that our supporters, candidates and national campaign team come from all backgrounds and identities.
I would be interested to know whether Channel 4 is subjecting the grassroots volunteers of all the political parties to similar subterfuges, or whether Reform UK has been singled out for special attention.”
Explainer: How the general election will be fought in Northern Ireland
If you’re wondering how the general election will be fought in Northern Ireland, Rory Carroll has you covered there too.
Here is his analysis, written shortly after the general election date was announced, on what going to the polls on 4 July could mean for Northern Ireland:
The general election will destabilise Northern Ireland’s government just as it was beginning to offer a sense of political normality. The campaign could decapitate the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) and undermine its delicate truce with Sinn Féin at Stormont, putting fresh pressure on the region’s brand of power sharing.
The executive was still finding equilibrium after being revived in February after a two-year hiatus. It briefly wobbled last month when Jeffrey Donaldson resigned as leader of the DUP in the wake of sex abuse charges spanning 21 years, but Sinn Féin’s first minister, Michelle O’Neill, and the DUP’s deputy first minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, steered it through the crisis. The election will present a sterner challenge.
The DUP may field Little-Pengelly to run for Donaldson’s Lagan Valley seat, which he is vacating and which the party risks losing to Alliance. That would remove her from Stormont.
The DUP’s interim leader, Gavin Robinson, risks losing his East Belfast seat to Alliance, especially if Naomi Long, Alliance’s leader and the justice minister, runs. Even if Robinson holds on, a hardline DUP faction that seethes at post-Brexit trading arrangements and has little love for Stormont may try to seize the leadership after the election.
Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist health minister, is to step down to try to become MP for South Antrim, leaving the executive’s most important and problematic portfolio in disarray.
The political climate will probably harshen as nationalist and unionist candidates vie to rally their grassroots with wedge issues such as the Irish language and the legacy of the Troubles.
Few if any parties will mourn the departure of Chris Heaton-Harris, the Northern Ireland secretary, who is stepping down as a Tory MP.
Updated
Back to Northern Ireland, the Guardian’s Rory Carroll has written about the key election issues in Belfast East for the path to power series.
In Northern Ireland’s capital, the election is being fought between unionists and ‘neithers’ – with poverty, crumbling public services and crime at the forefront, writes Carroll.
You can read the full piece here:
Reform UK campaigner in Clacton recorded calling for people fleeing war to be used as 'target practice'
A Reform UK campaigner in Clacton, Essex, has called for people fleeing war or persecution to be used as “target practice” and used a racial slur against the prime minister.
An undercover reporter working for Channel 4 has recorded footage of canvasser Andrew Parker talking about migrants coming ashore at Deal in Kent.
In a statement to Channel 4 news, Parker said:
I would like to make it clear that neither Nigel Farage personally or the Reform party are aware of my personal views on immigration.
I have never discussed immigration with either Nigel Farage or the Reform party and that any comments made by me during those recordings are my own personal views on any subject I commented on.
At no time before I was sent out to canvass did I discuss my personal views with any representative of the Reform party or Nigel Farage.
I would therefore like to apologise profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute, as this was not my intention.
I offered to help the Reform party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”
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General election is 'not a referendum on me' or the Conservative party, Sunak says in speech
Speaking near Leeds this evening Rishi Sunak said:
I know why people are hesitant about giving us their support – I’m not blind to the frustrations that people have with me, with our party.
It’s been a difficult few years with Covid, with the war in Ukraine, we haven’t got everything right and we haven’t made as much progress in every area as we would have liked.
But this is not a referendum on me, on the Conservative party. This is not a byelection. This is a choice about the future of our country and a choice with profound consequences for you, your families and our nation.
Just think what a Labour government would actually mean and in fact, sometimes it’s quite hard because Keir Starmer’s changed his mind on almost every position that he’s taken and in these uncertain times, this country needs leadership that has the courage of its convictions, someone who stands by what they’ve said, that’s how you deliver for people.”
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Rishi Sunak has been giving an evening speech in Leeds, Yorkshire.
According to the PA news agency, the prime minister began his speech by telling campaigners:
Friends, we have urgent work to do. We have one week to save Britain from a Labour government – now, a Labour government that would raise everyone’s taxes by £2,000, that would shunt our politics to the left, that would change the rules so that they’re in power for decades.
We can’t let Britain sleepwalk into that.
It is our job, it is our duty over the next week to wake people up to that danger, so I say to you, I say to every Conservative, get out there and fight for every vote, fight for our values and fight for our vision of Britain.”
Updated
The BBC are getting set for tonight’s debate. BBC journalists Tara Mills and Darran Marshall have randomly drawn the order in which the politicians from Northern Ireland’s five largest parties will stand.
From left to right podiums, this is how it will look: Colum Eastwood (SDLP), Chris Hazzard (Sinn Féin), Naomi Long (Alliance), Gavin Robinson (DUP) and Robbie Butler (UUP).
The stage is set - @taramillstv and @DarranMarshall have randomly drawn the order in which politicians from NI's five largest parties will stand in the NI Leaders’ Debate.
— BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) June 27, 2024
Tune in at 21:00 to watch on BBC One NI, BBC iPlayer or the BBC News Channel #GE24 https://t.co/1DV6mxk2go pic.twitter.com/KznaxrmPBG
Opening summary
Welcome to the latest politics live blog, which later will focus on tonight’s general election TV debate with politicians from Northern Ireland’s five largest political parties.
The hour-long debate will begin at 9pm BST and will be broadcast BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC iPlayer and the BBC News channel.
The five politicians taking part are:
Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP).
Chris Hazzard, Sinn Féin MP candidate.
Colum Eastwood, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP).
Naomi Long, leader of the Alliance party.
Robbie Butler, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party (UUP).
It will be the second TV debate of the general election featuring Northern Ireland’s five main political parties. The first, the UTV election debate, took place last Sunday and saw the five parties clash over Irish unity, Brexit and Stormont’s budget.
During tonight’s debate, each of the five politicians on stage will be given the opportunity to respond to questions on key general election issues from the audience.
