Summary

  • Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn go head-to-head in a live TV debate

  • One questioner referred to criticism of both men from former PMs Sir John Major and Tony Blair

  • Mr Corbyn said a Labour government would negotiate a Brexit deal within three months

  • Mr Johnson said there was "ample time" to build a free trade partnership with the EU after leaving

  • The NHS featured too, with Mr Corbyn describing it "at breaking point"

  • Mr Johnson said charges the NHS was to be part of a US trade deal was "Bermuda Triangle stuff"

  • In his closing statement, Mr Corbyn said he would be as ambitious as the Labour government who created the NHS

  • Mr Johnson's closing statement said his Tory government would "get Brexit done"

  • The UK goes to the polls next Thursday

  1. Late night round-uppublished at 23:00 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    What happened today?

    We're wrapping things up for the evening, so here's a brief catch-up on the main events of today:

    • Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn clashed over Brexit, the NHS, security and trust in the final head-to-head debate before polling day on 12 December
    • Mr Corbyn presented himself as the candidate for "real change", promising a government as radical as the one that built the NHS
    • Mr Johnson said the public faced a choice between a "chaotic" Labour-SNP government and one that would "get Brexit done" and allow the country to "move on"
    • After the debate, Lib Dem spokesman Tom Brake said the party was still fighting, despite tough polling figures, and would "take seats from the Conservatives" on election night
    • SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said both Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn were "uninspiring" and "unsuited to be PM". The Greens Amelia Womack lamented the lack of focus on climate change in the debate
    • Elsewhere, former prime ministers Tony Blair and John Major addressed the Vote for a Final Say rally, where supporters of another EU referendum were calling for tactical voting to block a Conservative majority

    Thank you so much for joining us - back again tomorrow...

  2. Spin room winding downpublished at 22:48 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    BBC online reporter signs off...

    Jennifer Scott
    BBC News

    Spin room

    A few of the late night programmes are still at it - tune into BBC Newsnight right now for Kirsty Wark from, well, behind me...

    But overall, the spinning is slowing down as the buzz of the debate wears off.

    The feeling in the room - and even the acceptance from some of the party teams away from the cameras - is it was another draw between the leaders.

    And as many of our correspondents have said, there was no killer moment that is likely to change the election campaign.

    But these debates give voters a chance to see their next prime minister in action and have their policies scrutinised, and that is what we came for.

    Good night from Maidstone!

    Spin room
  3. Debate over, back to election pledges...published at 22:45 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    An electric busImage source, Getty Images

    As our debate coverage begins to draw to a close, the parties are throwing forward already to the next day of campaigning.

    Labour is first out of the traps with another new policy pledge. It says it wants to electrify all UK buses by 2030.

    The Tories argue Labour would "scrap vital new roads".

    Read more.

  4. Hancock: Clarity of Johnson's Brexit message 'resonates'published at 22:38 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Matt HancockImage source, Getty Images

    Another Conservative voice from the spin room and another endorsement for Boris Johnson.

    Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the debate showed "clear leadership" from his boss "versus lack of leadership from Jeremy Corbyn".

    He tells reporters Mr Johnson's clarity of on Brexit has been going down well on the doorsteps.

    "I've now been to 114 campaign visits and I can tell you that getting Brexit done so we can move on and deal with all the other things that matter to this country is a message that resonates from Penzance to Middlesbrough."

  5. Johnson's Brexit slogan among top trending phrasespublished at 22:34 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    By Chris Bell

    BBC Trending

    It did not escape the notice of those watching at home that the prime minister was keen to repeat one phrase in particular.

    “Get Brexit done” was one of the top trending phrases on Twitter, with nearly 50,000 tweets in about an hour - second only to #BBCLeadersDebate.

    It was clear from Mr Johnson’s Twitter activity today that this was his plan.

    No fewer than 13 tweets or retweets from his Twitter account sent before the debate referenced the phrase.

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    You might think Mr Johnson would be pleased to see his campaign slogan trending.

    But the actual messages tell a different story.

    The overwhelming tone of the most popular “Get Brexit done” tweets was not at all sympathetic to the prime minister.

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    The general left-leaning bias of Twitter users makes this far from a representative sample.

    But most of the most widely-shared posts using the Conservative catchphrase were groaning rather than cheering along.

  6. Analysis: Probation and the London Bridge attackerpublished at 22:31 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Danny Shaw
    BBC Home Affairs Correspondent

    Talking about London Bridge attacker Usman Khan during the debate, Boris Johnson said there was "no parole or probation involved in this" - but probation officers were in charge of his supervision upon release.

    Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile. said the probation system was "privatised by this government".

    Supervision of low and medium-risk offenders was outsourced, but it's the state that monitors high-risk offenders including Khan.

    Privatisation has been heavily criticised and earlier this year the government announced plans to reverse the changes.

  7. Missed the debate? Here's how to catch uppublished at 22:28 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Debate

    If you missed the debate or want to go over the party leaders' answers again, we've got a couple of options.

    You can listen to the audio from BBC Radio 5 Live over at BBC Sounds.

    Or you can watch the leaders go head to head on BBC iPlayer.

  8. Leaders were on their best behaviourpublished at 22:26 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Laura Kuenssberg
    BBC political editor

    I think tonight we basically saw the two main rivals on their best behaviour.

    And they were really trying to appeal to their core voters, those people who have already made up their minds.

    It didn’t feel to me like there was a big game-changing moment where either Boris Johnson dropped the ball or Jeremy Corbyn managed to land a new goal in the back of the net.

    If we think about the broad context, this campaign has only six days to go.

    Look at the polls with a pinch of salt, but the Tories are ahead consistently and Labour are consistently trailing them.

    Therefore, tonight it was Boris Johnson's side that were deeply nervous things would go wrong.

    For Jeremy Corbyn this was one of his last big chances to really cause an upset and I don’t think we saw a sign of anything like that.

    But core voters on both sides will have watched their man out there and ended up more sure of the decision they had already made.

  9. Labour has 'very grown up position on Brexit' - Chakrabartipublished at 22:20 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Stephen Nolan puts it to Labour's Shami Chakrabarti that Boris Johnson damaged Jeremy Corbyn by drawing out from him that he doesn't have a clear position on Brexit.

    "Obviously I disagree with that leading question," Baroness Chakrabarti says. "I think we have a very grown up position and are offering a different style of leadership to that offered by Boris Johnson.

    "He would 'get Brexit done', a crash-out Brexit that would cost us jobs and services, and he will cosy up to Donald Trump and that will have huge consequences in particular for the NHS.

    "Jeremy Corbyn says that we can bring people together with a deal within three months that is a very soft Brexit that would safeguard our jobs, services, our trade relationships and security relationships with our nearest neighbours and then we would put it back to the people versus remain.

    "I don't think that is difficult or complicated."

  10. Watch: The leaders on how to punish lying politicianspublished at 22:17 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

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  11. And another argument breaks out...published at 22:15 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    BBC online reporter spots another tussle...

    Jennifer Scott
    BBC News

    Well, we said Labour's Barry Gardiner was off to "engage" with Conservative Matt Hancock - he did and it turned into another argument

    After a loud attack from the Labour shadow minister, accusing the health secretary of dividing the country, there are eye rolls and arm crosses from the Tory as he asks for Labour's Brexit position.

    The crowds gathered again to watch the spat.

  12. 'No massive whoppers': our Reality Check correspondent's verdictpublished at 22:12 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Chris Morris
    BBC Reality Check

    Chris Morris

    People who liked Jeremy Corbyn will have liked some of things he said about the Conservatives. Those who like Boris Johnson would have thought, "yeah we do need to get Brexit done".

    It was notable, though, that Mr Johnson appeared reluctant to attack Mr Corbyn too much. It felt like he was playing it fairly safe and perhaps feeling that he didn't really need to go on the attack to achieve all that much.

    Once or twice the leaders basically said "here's a number, but I'm just going to explain how that breaks down" - sort of pointing out some of the facts that we and others have been saying during the campaign.

    Jeremy Corbyn said there were four million children in the country living in poverty. It's really hard to measure poverty. It's true that their are four million children, roughly, living in low income houses - but it's not quite the same thing.

    Boris Johnson once again talked about 40 hospitals, but he did explain the figures a bit more this time. However, he said there are going to be 20,000 more police on the streets, without saying "we've cut 20,000 since the Conservatives first came into government in 2010".

    So a few things you could quibble with in terms of the way you present the statistics, but I thought there were no massive whoppers.

  13. What does the snap poll tell us?published at 22:09 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Chris Curtis, political research manager at YouGov, tells BBC Radio 5 live that the Conservatives will likely be happy tonight, given the results of the snap poll.

    He says: "The result was 52% for Boris Johnson and 48% for Jeremy Corbyn. It is basically the same result as we saw last time round.

    "With six days to go I think Jeremy Corbyn needed a bigger win tonight.

    "Given that the Conservatives went into this evening with a fairly comfortable nine-point lead in the opinion polls I think what Labour were hoping for was that a good performance from Jeremy Corbyn would help close that gap in the coming days."

  14. First, fast and furious - the nature of the spin roompublished at 22:07 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    BBC online reporter witnesses the battle...

    Jennifer Scott
    BBC News

    As the leaders gave their closing speeches, the spin room noise level began to rise - and as soon as it was a wrap, the scurrying began.

    The desks for journalists are laid out like tight little warrens, and every reporter, politician and spinner is navigating their way through, hoping not to trip up and cause a different kind of headline.

    We now have big names from both Labour and the Tories who want to be in front of the camera and sell their guy as the top dog.

    The first (and loudest) row was between Labour's shadow international trade secretary, Barry Gardiner, and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab over Brexit.

    All the crews gathered around the face-off, as one shouted and another rolled their eyes. It's worth watching our coverage on the BBC News channel for the full glory.

    The next was Tory Nicky Morgan and Labour's Baroness Chakrabati, who, while friendly off camera, laid into each other on air.

    It was quite a moment to watch, as the two women spoke over each other to accuse the other of interrupting...

    But that is the nature of a spin room. You want to be first, fast and furious, fighting for your candidate, and telling voters who won what they just watched.

    And it isn't over yet. We have spotted some more people heading in.

    Excuse us while we go and see what Mr Gardiner has to say to Health Secretary Matt Hancock...

  15. SNP: 'Perfectly sensible' to hold indyref2published at 22:05 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Stewart Hosie

    Another voice in the spin room - the SNP's Stewart Hosie says Mr Corbyn “has accepted the principle” of holding another Scottish referendum.

    What Mr Corbyn has actually said is that there wouldn't be one in the early years - at least the first two - of a Labour government. He wants to make his priority directing massive investment into Scotland instead.

    But Mr Hosie says "we can’t turn democracy off" when opinions change, and it is "perfectly sensible" to hold another Scottish independence referendum.

    When challenged on his own party's spending plans, Mr Hosie says: “The entire basis of the SNP plan… is not to lead to austerity.”

  16. Lib Dem: 'We will take seats from the Conservatives'published at 22:03 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Tom Brake

    Lib Dem Brexit spokesman Tom Brake is challenged over polls that appear to show his party is not doing well.

    "There is a question mark over Jeremy Corbyn," Mr Brake says.

    He says in the "very hard fought" seats "there is the prospect on election night we will take seats from the Conservatives."

    "A good result for us is ensuring Boris Johnson does not have a majority," he says.

  17. Fairly friendly, but does it change the dial?published at 22:01 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Nick Eardley
    Political correspondent on BBC Radio 5 live

    I wonder if they didn't want to be seen to be shouting over each other? There were lots of exchanges, it was almost like a friendly chat - very polite.

    The polls suggest the Tories are fairly comfortably ahead of Labour, so for Boris Johnson, steady as she goes, no clear winner, fairly steady debate is probably a better thing than it is for Jeremy Corbyn.

    I think he will have wanted to make up some numbers tonight - and indeed he may well do that, but I'm not sure there was a moment that changes the dial and Labour will have been hoping for that.

  18. Watch: Johnson closing statementpublished at 22:00 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

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  19. Watch: Corbyn closing statementpublished at 21:58 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

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  20. Johnson 'repeating untruths', says Brexit Party MEPpublished at 21:58 Greenwich Mean Time 6 December 2019

    Alex Phillips

    Brexit Party MEP Alexandra Phillips says the PM is "repeating the same untruths and half-truths as he’s done since he became leader of the Conservatives" when it comes to his Brexit deal.

    "He said that we could change VAT rates, well, the political declaration [says] we'll have tax harmonisation. He says we'll take back control of our waters - the political declaration again [says] no, we want to still fish in your waters," she says.

    "He says we'll get Brexit done on 31 January. The point is - if we withdraw under his deal, we have a transition period which could go on for years - possibly three years, possibly more - where we are, in all effect, a full member state still paying the same into the EU, subject to its laws and regulations, but with no democratic representation."