Image source, Sky

The first audience question of the evening is from Sharon, who lives in Grimsby where the event's taking place.

She says “I’m proud of our town” but sets out problems it faces, including poor social housing and people using foodbanks. How will Labour address that, she asks.

The Labour leader says Grimsby needs a government that matches its own ambition and pride in itself.

He says towns like Grimsby need a growth plan with the “fingerprints” of local people on it, led by those “with skin in the game”, rather than being dictated to by civil servants in Whitehall.

“I want to roll up my sleeves and work with you… not make decisions a long, long way away,” he says.

Image source, PA Media

Put to him that some believe he's "boring", others "stiff", Starmer says he got into politics as an act of service - and that his wife was not keen on him becoming a politician because of all the challenges he'd face.

Asked what he's most afraid of if he does become prime minister, Starmer says his only real fear is for his children. His son is 13 and his daughter is 15 - both "really difficult ages," he tells the studio audience in Grimsby.

"My only real fear is the impact it's going to have on them," he says, adding that's why his children have never been named in public or been part of any photoshoots.

"I want them to be able to walk to school and have their own lives, unaffected."

We're still following the leaders event on Sky News - which Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak are taking part in. Starmer's just been asked if he personally, as a higher earner, would be happy to pay more tax.

"Yes, of course. I've always paid my tax in full," he says.

Starmer accepts he earns "a lot of money" in his job - before referencing his working class roots.

The mention of his dad being a toolmaker prompts laughter from some in the audience - both Starmer and Sunak have repeatedly mentioned their parents' jobs on the campaign trail - but Starmer says his parents "couldn't make ends meet which actually isn't a laughing matter".

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting in Sky News spin room

This is tricky territory for Sir Keir Starmer, and the most heated moment so far of this interview with Sky News.

He says that the party is “not looking at wealth taxes” and says the Labour manifesto will have “no surprises” but also doesn’t explicitly use the opportunity to rule out some other rises when pushed.

Are taxes at their highest for 70 years?published at 19:52 British Summer Time 12 June

19:52 BST 12 June

We've just heard the Labour leader say "we’ve got the highest tax burden for 70 years".

The amount of tax taken as a proportion of the size of the economy is expected to reach a 70-year high in the next five years.

This year it is expected to be at a historic high, although lower than it was last year.

That is largely because the points at which we start paying tax and higher rates of tax have been frozen, which means more people are paying tax and higher rates of tax, than if these thresholds had risen along with inflation.

It is important to point out that the thresholds are set to remain frozen under both the Conservatives and Labour until 2028.

Read more here.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting in Sky News spin room

Sir Keir Starmer is getting grilled now on why he previously campaigned for Jeremy Corbyn and whether Labour would raise taxes. The Tories have accused the party of wanting to do just that.

He got an applause when he said the Tories were not in a position to give lectures about tax rises.

But while Labour has ruled out raising national insurance, income tax or VAT, he’s not drawn on whether Labour would raise any other taxes or not.

Image source, PA Media

Circling back to a claim that his political career has been filled with "changed positions", Starmer accepts that he may have ditched some pledges - but says it was right because of the financial situation the country is in.

He cites the example of nationalising energy companies, a policy he had previously supported. Starmer says he asked his aides to work out the costings but concluded it would be far too expensive to justify - a choice between "keeping bills low and paying off shareholders".

Next, the Labour leader's asked about hiking taxes on the highest earners and he repeats his position that none of his party's spending plans will rely on raising income tax, VAT or income tax.

Pressed on the issue, he says: "I accept that previous Labour have pulled the tax lever every single time and driven up spending." Starmer says he intends to govern differently and will prioritise growing the economy.

Keir Starmer's initially quizzed about what Sky's political editor Beth Rigby refers to as his "catalogue of broken promises and changed positions".

She asks Starmer about his support for former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 election, and asks whether he meant it when he said Corbyn would make a great prime minister.

Starmer answers by saying he was "certain that we would lose the 2019 election".

He says he doesn't apologise for campaigning for Labour, that he wanted "good colleagues" to return to their positions as MPs - and when pressed on his comments about Corbyn as a potential prime minister, Starmer highlights that he's changed the Labour Party.

Image source, PA Media

Sky News's election event in Grimsby, pitting Keir Starmer against Rishi Sunak, has begun.

Starmer's up first in the hot seat, and he'll be quizzed by the broadcaster's political editor Beth Rigby before facing questions from the public. Sunak will then do the same.

Stay tuned as we bring you the key lines.

Ione Wells
Political correspondent, reporting in Sky News spin room

We’re in the ‘spin room’ in Grimsby where journalists are crouched over desks and politicians from different parties are milling around.

The idea is once Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak start speaking in a moment, their supporters will start dishing out lines on why they think their ‘side’ is winning.

So, what can we expect?

Well, at the last head-to-head Rishi Sunak tried to accuse the Labour Party of wanting to raise taxes – which was strongly disputed by Labour. The Tories have doubled down on that claim since, so we can probably expect that to come up again.

Starmer is also likely to try criticise the Tories’ record in office, zeroing in on issues like NHS waiting lists and immigration figures.

Nadia Ragozhina
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

We've just finished hearing from the SNP leader John Swinney and the Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth - who both faced Nick Robinson in separate interviews earlier today. (Scroll down to see the highlights.)

Meanwhile, we've been listening to ITV's interview with Rishi Sunak - check out our previous post.

We're now turning our attention to Rishi Sunk and Keir Starmer, who are being grilled by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby live.

Each leader will face 20 minutes of questions separately, and then 25 minutes from the audience.

Starmer will go first, after a red ball was pulled out of a bag first, followed by Sunak. Stick with us for all the news and analysis.

Image source, Reuters

We've been tuned into Rishi Sunak's pre-recorded interview with ITV, ahead of his appearance on Sky TV along with Keir Starmer in the next few minutes.

He was asked about immigration and the potential threat Nigel Farage's party Reform UK poses to the Conservatives' election hopes.

The PM says he has "respect" for Farage and says it's right he's highlighted migration as an issue. He adds that he "really doesn't know" the Reform leader and thinks he has "only met him once".

He repeats the message to viewers that any vote for a candidate that is not a Conservative is a vote for Keir Starmer.

Sunak says he has wanted to bring immigration down "since the first day I had this job". "It's too high and puts pressure on public services, and illegal migration is simply unfair," he adds.

After a flurry of political interviews in the last half hour, we're now poised to bring you what Sunak and Starmer have to say in their live TV interviews, so stay with us.

The interview between Swinney and the BBC’s Nick Robinson draws to a close with an exchange about the future of Westminster - specifically the SNP leader’s views about what’s going to happen at this election.

He says the Conservatives have “lost it in England” and he believes voters will go against them - but repeats his accusation that “an incoming Labour government has committed itself to carry on with £18bn worth of cuts“ (see our earlier post at 19:15 BST for more on that).

Pushed on whether he believes there’s a difference between Labour leader Keir Sunak and Rishi Sunak being in power, Swinney says again that he believes “England’s going to vote against the Tories - it’s absolutely crystal clear - so people in Scotland have got to decide who’s going to protect them at Westminster, and the SNP will do that”.

Image source, BBC Images

Before wrapping up the interview with Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth, Nick Robinson turned to the topic of whether devolution has been a success.

On that, he said "25 years of unbroken Labour-led governments" has been a problem for Wales, and told the BBC the powers could be used better "in hands that are radical enough".

He accepted Plaid will struggle to make a breakthrough under the Westminster voting system but called on people to back his party, saying it will work to stop Labour from "acting with impunity" and represent Wales.

Finally, he was asked about the bullying and harassment scandal which saw the former leader of Plaid Cymru resign last year.

Ap Iorwerth said everyone in the party needs to "ask ourselves 'did we do enough'" to spot that behaviour, but closed by saying: "I'm confident that change has happened."

Next up, the BBC's Nick Robinson asks SNP leader John Swinney about Scotland's gender reform plans.

For context: MSPs voted in December 2022 to pass the controversial Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. But the UK government then used powers to veto the bill, saying it could interfere with equalities law across the entire country.

The Scottish government lodged a legal challenge, in a bid to overturn that decision, but judges ruled the UK government had acted lawfully.

Swinney tells Robinson that the the bill was passed with support from cross-party MSPs - not just the SNP.

Asked if Swinney will pursue the plans under a Labour government, if they win the election, the SNP leader expresses the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls as well as the challenges that transgender people face.

Health is next on the agenda - which, as a reminder, is a devolved issue (meaning each UK nation has its own legislation for that area).

Swinney says the NHS in Scotland accounts for "in excess of 40%" of the Scottish government’s budget - up from 33% in 2007, he adds.

Robinson points out that Scotland taxes its people more than any other UK nation, and spends more on the NHS per patient than in England and Wales - and "yet still you've got 37,000 people waiting more than a year" for treatment.

"That’s a measure of the scale of demand there is for the NHS," Swinney says, adding that Scotland's A&E system is "performing the best in the United Kingdom - but there are still challenges that exist".

On the topic of immigration in that same interview from earlier today, Ap Iorwerth said there is a case for Wales to accept more people to support sectors like hospitality and higher education, and called for Wales to be a "country of sanctuary" for asylum seekers.

He said he hopes to "change the tone" around the debate on immigration, and blames pressures on public services on cuts to funding, not people coming to the UK.

Asked about how he would theoretically run the economy if he was Prime Minister, he said "tax is a good thing" and is needed to pay for vital public services, though he called for the burden to be eased on lower and middle earners in favour of higher taxes on companies and oil and gas firms.

Image source, BBC Images

Robinson and Swinney are now going back and forth about oil and gas licenses - a point of contention between the UK and Scottish governments in the past.

On whether the SNP would approve new licenses to protect jobs in parts of Scotland, Swinney insists each one would have to be considered on a case by case basis - based on whether they're "compatible with our [the SNP’s] net zero objectives".

“We’ve got a climate emergency, none of us duck that, I can’t duck that and I’m not prepared to duck it. But I’ve also got to manage a transition for the oil and gas sector,” he tells Robinson.

Towards the end of the exchange, he accuses Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of having “climate denier status of the first order” for saying last year he’d grant 100 new North Sea oil and gas licences.

Are £18bn worth of spending cuts coming?published at 19:16 British Summer Time 12 June

19:16 BST 12 June

SNP leader John Swinney just told the BBC’s Nick Robinson: “Labour are not being open with people about the fact that they’ve signed up to £18bn worth of cuts”.

Labour has said it will stick to the broad outlines of the Conservatives’ current spending plans, which see an increase in spending on public services overall.

However, with a lot of this going on increased spending on health, education and defence, other unprotected areas of public spending face a squeeze in coming years, if the government is to meet its target of halving the national debt falling in five years.

The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated, external that this could amount to £18bn a year by the end of the Parliament.

That could mean cuts to services such as courts, further education and local government, but they are not inevitable.

An improvement in the economy could make these cuts unnecessary – or the government could find a way to raise more tax.

In the interview with the SNP's John Swinney, we're now onto tax.

He says the UK should replicate Scotland’s system of taxing higher earners to avoid more austerity after the election.

He says adopting Scotland’s approach would “avoid the £18bn worth of cuts” he claims will be made by either a future Conservative or Labour government in Westminster - which Nick Robinson reminds him both parties have denied.

The cuts were first flagged , externalby the economic research group the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) following the government’s March budget.

Image source, BBC Images

Pushed on whether, if he were UK prime minister, he’d tax higher earners - Swinney says “the alternative to that of course is cuts in public spending … that the Labour Party and the Conservative Party are essentially signed up to”.

He also accuses Labour of "ducking and diving" on the issue.