Farage appears to suggest NHS should be abolished in current formpublished at 20:08 British Summer Time 7 June

20:08 BST 7 June

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

One of the fascinating things about a seven-way debate is that there are multiple permutations of debaters who can end up slinging it out.

In this case, on the NHS: the SNP’s Stephen Flynn and Reform’s Nigel Farage.

Farage appeared to say that he believed the NHS should be abolished, at least in its current form funded by general taxation. He suggested a French-style insurance system would get better results “for the same money”.

Flynn in response said: “This is Nigel telling you he does not believe in the NHS. A national treasure. He wants to privatise it.”

Reform’s campaign so far has generally focused on immigration. So it’s interesting to see Farage being willing to strike out so far from the current political consensus on health policy.

Mordaunt first talks about cutting taxes before Mishal Husain asks her to respond directly to the question.

Mordaunt says immigration is too high, adding the Tories would introduce a cap on numbers in the next Parliament if elected.

Image source, PA Media

Iorwerth says Farage wants to make this an election for his own self-interest, and we need to change the tone of the debate on immigration and "too much of it is framed around the bigotry of people like Nigel Farage".

Farage sarcastically replies: "Open the doors! Let everyone come! Benefits for everybody!"

Returning to the current debate topic, Farage says all the other parties think questioning migration is wrong.

After decades of lownet migration, he says the last Labour government allowed in 2.7 million more people, then the Conservatives allowed 4.3 million more.

Most, he claims, are not productive but are dependants. This ought to be an immigration election, he says.

Flynn casts Labour and Tories as 'Westminster parties'published at 20:05 British Summer Time 7 June

20:05 BST 7 June

Phil Sim
BBC Scotland political journalist

With the Labour and Conservative leaders chiefly targeting each other in their arguments, there is an opening for the other parties to attack them both.

Stephen Flynn is particularly delighting in this, given his SNP are facing off against the two parties in key seats.

His strategy is to paint Labour and the Tories with the same brush, repeatedly referring to “the Westminster parties” and claiming both would continue an “austerity agenda”.

In a Scottish leaders’ debate the SNP representative would often be the main target – here, the other leaders seem more focused on landing blows on each other.

Flynn now answers the question about migration and wants to underline a few "home truths".

He says migration is essential for public services and businesses, among other things.

Flynn says we need to "end the demonisation" of migration and wise up to the benefits of it. In Scotland, he adds, migrants are needed.

The next contributor, Lorenzo, asks the panellists what they plan to do on migration. Lorenzo says he is struggling to find a home and access services - which he believes is caused by increased migration.

A theme is emerging - the fine print will be in the manifestospublished at 20:01 British Summer Time 7 June

20:01 BST 7 June

Hugh Pym
Health editor

A question on the NHS has come up early in the debate.

Daisy Cooper of the Liberal Democrats said her party would bring in more GPs and free personal care but when asked about the cost she says plans will be set out in the manifesto, due in the next few days.

The Green Party have said the same thing in recent days - the manifesto will have details of how NHS improvements will be paid for.

It may be a theme of the evening - you will need to wait for manifestos for the fine print of NHS spending plans.

Daisy Cooper from the Lib Dems disagrees with Farage, citing a study from the King's Fund which she says found the most important factor in determining health outcomes is how much money is spent.

Carla Denyer from the Greens says the NHS has been "chronically underfunded for decades" and that the health service is "on its knees".

Nigel Farage says the NHS model isn't working and the more money we spend, the less delivery we get, which means the model is wrong.

Flynn says this is Nigel telling you he "does not believe in NHS".

Farage hits back that there are countries, such as France, that have different ways of funding healthcare using an insurance model.

Iorwerth of Plaid Cymru says his party is clear the NHS must remain free at point of need and not see profit taken out of it, which he adds Labour is now contemplating.

He says austerity has made things far worse, and heath staff need proper planning and support.

Image source, PA Media

Rayner responds to Mordaunt's statement that a strong economy is needed for the NHS.

She puts it to Mordaunt that she backed former PM Liz Truss who "crashed the economy".

Mordaunt retorts that Truss still recognised a nuclear deterrent was needed - to which Rayner says so does she.

Penny Mordaunt says medical staff are currently dealing with "an increase in NHS workload of 43%," which she says was caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

She says the only way to ensure a strong NHS is by developing a "strong economy" and vows that spending on the service will increase.

Flynn interjects to tell Rayner Labour needs to explain how it would close the claimed £18bn spending gap brought up by the IFS.

Rayner replies saying the money can be found through efficiencies and closing the non-dom tax loophole.

She concludes saying that "all roads lead to the Tories" over issues within the health service.

Mishal Husain asks Angela Rayner about the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) saying both Tories and Labour aren't being honest on the economy - because of the promises they've made to bring debt down.

Rayner says Labour would end the non-dom loophole and bring in 40,000 new medical appointments every week.

SNP's Flynn wins first applause of the nightpublished at 19:53 British Summer Time 7 June

19:53 BST 7 June

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

An interesting dynamic to the seven-way debate is that there are two leaders on stage who only stand in one of the nations.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s representative, was therefore challenged on the party’s record in government in Scotland on health – a devolved policy area.

He defended the SNP government there, saying that it had provided the health service with record funding and that there had not been a single NHS strike in Scotland.

And then in a clever piece of debate technique, he used the fact the questioner was a future university medical student to point out that university tuition is free in Scotland – winning the first applause from the audience of the night.

Flynn says he was disabled, and would not be here if it was not for the NHS.

He also points out that the SNP has abolished university tuition fees in Scotland.

Daisy Cooper responds first, saying that under the Tories health and social care have been driven into the ground.

She adds that her party has a clear plan, including more GPs and a mental health community hub in every single community.

Asked about funding, she says the party's manifesto will set out how every pledge will be funded but underlines they will not tax struggling families and are instead looking at big companies making "huge profits".

The next question is from an aspiring medicine student, who asks how the parties plan to support the NHS.

Daisy Cooper from the Lib Dems says Sunak's actions were "politically shameful" and insulting, bringing up her grandfather, who was on the Normandy beaches on D-Day seeing the death and destruction that day.

She says if he had been there yesterday and seen the prime minister walk away from him, she would find it "completely unforgivable".