Jeremy Corbyn skewered on his IRA links and support for immigration as Theresa May gets heckled by studio audience on social care in bruising TV election debate
Prime Minister and the Labour leader were also quizzed by Jeremy Paxman in joint Channel 4 and Sky News show
JEREMY Corbyn was skewered on his links with the IRA, support for high levels of immigration and his shaky security policy by the public in a bruising TV election debate tonight.
Meanwhile Theresa May was heckled by the studio audience and grilled on social care changes in the biggest event of the campaign so far.
The Labour leader was also taken to task by veteran broadcaster Jeremy Paxman over his views on nuclear weapons in the joint Channel 4 and Sky News show.
And Mrs May was pressed about the so-called "dementia tax", with one elderly audience member asking: "Why should we in my generation vote for you?"
As the Prime Minister ruled out going head-to-head with Mr Corbyn the pair were questioned separately, with the veteran leftie having a tough time up first with the voters.
He was accused of "openly supporting the IRA in the past" by questioner Callum McNeil, who referred to a service Mr Corbyn attended, which he said was to honour IRA killers.
The Labour boss said called for a "peace and dialogue process in Northern Ireland", and would only say he “made contact with Sinn Fein”, not IRA members.
But on immigration he refused to say if numbers should come down after Britain leaves the EU.
The audience reacted badly after he simply said his party wants "managed migration" - but refused to say what that means, just that it would "probably" be no higher than at present.
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He added: "I am not going to stand here and put a figure. Our Prime Minister has done that now in the third election and got nowhere near meeting that figure.
"I would have thought that under a managed migration system it certainly would not go up any more."
However Mr Corbyn was told he had made it "impossible" for one audience member to vote Labour due to his "ruthless, short-sighted" policies including raising corporation tax to 26%, a £10 an hour minimum wage and imposing VAT on private school fees.
The Labour leader appealed to the voter to recognise "we are all better off, when everybody is better off".
Mr Corbyn was pressed by Mr Paxman over comments he made following the Argentine invasion of the Falklands that "young unemployed men" were being sent to the South Atlantic to die in pursuit of a "Tory plot".
The Labour leader said he did not believe it had been a "plot" but did claim Margaret Thatcher had been exploiting the situation.
Questions over Mr Corbyn's support for nuclear disarmament were also raised, including whether he would be prepared to use the nuclear deterrent.
And he was pressed by Mr Paxman over why he had been unable to get his long-held belief in nuclear disarmament into the Labour manifesto, which backs the renewal of the Trident deterrent system.
Mr Corbyn said it was "a conference decision by the Labour Party and as the leader of the party I accept the democracy of our party”.
After being repeatedly challenged to state whether he felt that nuclear weapons were "morally right", he replied: "That's the decision that has been taken.”
As Mr Paxman interrupted his replies, Mr Corbyn protested jokingly: "Come on, give us a chance."
And when challenged over why some of his "core beliefs" - such as nationalising banks - did not feature in the Labour manifesto, he said: "I'm not a dictator who writes things to tell people what to do."
After Mr Corbyn, his rival on June 8 Mrs May faced the studio audience, and was tackled on her record as a minister for the past seven years.
She was confronted by a serving officer about the "devastating" cuts during her time as Home Secretary.
The man, whose name was given as Martin, asked for a specific number of additional officers she would recruit if re-elected next month, but she failed to provide an answer.
And the PM acknowledged that numbers of police in England and Wales had fallen by around 20,000.
On the issue of social care she answered by saying the UK faces the challenge of an ageing society, and her party's proposals were "about ensuring that nobody is going to have to sell their house to pay for care in their lifetime".
Asked about plans to means-test winter fuel payments, Mrs May said she did not want to "pull out a figure" during an election campaign but "listen to people, talk to people, to take people's views and then make a proposal as government".
On protecting schools funding in real terms per pupil she said: "Nobody can guarantee the real terms per pupil funding increase.
"In the Labour Party's manifesto we know the figures don't add up."
But the PM was heckled by some audience members, with one heard saying: "You've clearly failed."
Mrs May went on: "What we need to do is to ensure we will put those record levels of funding into schools, we need to ensure we get that better spread of funding in terms of the fair funding formula."
Mr Paxman also said she would be seen as a “blowhard” by the EU over her recent U-turns, but Mrs May responded by saying: "I think, Jeremy, you will find that what the people in Brussels look at is the record I had of negotiating with them in Brussels and delivering for this country on a number of issues on justice and home affairs which people said we were never going to get, and I got those negotiations."
Mrs May was also challenged several times over how much the UK is prepared to pay Brussels as part of Brexit and said: "It isn't a question of what it's worth paying to get out.
“It's a question of what is going to be the right deal for us to leave the European Union, which will stop us from paying huge sums of money into the EU every single year, which will enable us to have control of our money, of our borders and our laws."
- Do you know questioner Callum McNeil? Please contact [email protected]
How did the leaders perform?
In response to the debate a spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said:
"In answering the audience’s questions, Jeremy showed the clear choice on offer in this election is about the kind of country we want Britain to be.
“The choice is between Labour’s plan to transform Britain for the many not the few, and a Conservative Party that has held people back and put the wealthy first.”
And attacking Theresa May's appearance on the debate they said: "Theresa May floundered on her record on police cuts, on funding for our NHS and schools and on her manifesto policy on social care that didn’t last more than a few days before it was amended with an unspecified cap.
“It’s no surprise she had no answers because the Tories plan to continue the tax giveaways to the wealthy and big business while offering no new funding for public services.”
In response for the Conservatives David Davis said:
“The Prime Minister brought it back to the fundamentals – who is going to get the best Brexit deal, and in doing so who will be able to secure our economy, our public services and our national security.
“Tonight she showed the strength and quiet determination to confront the challenges the country faces and set out the way through them.
“It was a strong, mature, considered performance.”
The Brexit Secretary added: “And it couldn’t have been more different to Jeremy Corbyn – who flannelled under pressure and couldn’t get past 30 years of words and deeds that put him on the wrong side of the British people.”