Parties to face off in second election TV debate
The debate will be hosted by Tara Mills
- Published
Politicians from Northern Ireland's five largest political parties will face off later in the second TV debate of the general election campaign.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson, Sinn Féin's Chris Hazzard, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood, Alliance leader Naomi Long and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) deputy leader Robbie Butler will take part in the BBC debate.
It follows the first debate on UTV on Sunday night which saw the parties clash over Brexit, Stormont's budget and Irish unity among other issues.
What time is the election debate and where can I watch it?
The debate will be broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC iPlayer and the News Channel at 21:00 BST on Thursday.
It will be streamed on the BBC News NI website, which will also feature text updates throughout the debate and beyond.
BBC correspondents will be fact-checking claims made during the debate as it is broadcast, with analysis available on the BBC News NI website.
It will be accompanied by coverage of the smaller parties.
Tara Mills will be the host and the politicians will face questions from a studio audience.
What will happen during the debate?
Each party's representative will have the chance to respond to questions from the audience and to set out their position on key issues in the general election campaign.
You can also expect to see exchanges and disputes between them.
It will last for an hour.
What happened during the last debate?
The five largest parties were also at the UTV debate
The UTV debate took place on Sunday and was attended by DUP leader Gavin Robinson, Sinn Féin's John Finucane, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, Alliance leader Naomi Long and UUP deputy leader Robbie Butler.
Mr Robinson defended the DUP's deal which saw the party in February end its two-year boycott of Stormont's devolved government and legislative assembly.
Mrs Long criticised the DUP's record at Westminster while Mr Finucane defended his party's policy of not taking its seats in the House of Commons.
That stance was criticised by Mr Eastwood, whose party does sit at Westminster.
Mr Butler criticised Sinn Féin and the DUP for collapsing the Stormont executive in previous years.
There were also debates over Irish unity between the unionist and and nationalist parties.
But Mr Robinson also criticised the Alliance leader - whose party is unaligned on the constitutional question - for agreeing to attend a conference by a group campaigning for a united Ireland but later pulling out.
She defended her position, saying she had been busy campaigning, not "hiding".
She and Mr Robinson are going head-to-head in Belfast East for the fourth general election in a row.
Analysis: Expect a safety-first approach
It’s called a leaders' debate but two leaders will be absent.
Instead of Michelle O'Neill, Stormont's first minister, Sinn Féin will be represented by Chris Hazzard, MP for South Down since 2017.
And instead of Doug Beattie the Ulster Unionists will field the Lagan Valley assembly member Robbie Butler.
On one level these debates provide a valuable opportunity to probe party positions on a series of issues in a pressured environment, but often they promise more than they deliver.
The politicians tend to adopt a safety-first approach aware that there is probably more to be lost than gained.
Unlike Great Britain, Northern Ireland will have only two televised debates for this election.
The first one on UTV on Sunday saw DUP leader Gavin Robinson pressed over Brexit and the deal which saw his party return to Stormont after a two-year boycott while Sinn Féin's John Finucane was pushed over his party's refusal to take its seats at Westminster.
Expect more of the same tonight, though whether it will change many people's voting intentions is a difficult question to answer.
