Macron hits back at Le Pen over health.

Most medicine is manufactured abroad so Le Pen's plan to tax imports won't make them any cheaper, he says.

BBC presenter Andrew Neil is evidently enjoying the free-for-all.

The BBC's Piers Scholfield is following the debate. 

"Yours is a hidden project," he says.

He says she will have to raise taxes or increase the national debt to pay for her policies.

"It's our children who will pay," he says.

"We don't have enough doctors. We have to look abroad," says Le Pen. 

She also talks about going head-to-head with big pharma companies to cut the prices of drugs.

He's so far spoken for more than 18 minutes, compared to Le Pen's 15 minutes.

Macron has been trying to land a simple blow on Le Pen amid a flurry of bad-tempered arguing.

"I have a simple question for you. How are you going to finance it all?" he asks.

A few minutes later he tries again.

"You can't pay for what you're promising," he says.

Le Pen has listed lots of benefits she will bring in, including boosting pensions and housing welfare for young people. Macron questions her on how she will fund these plans.

“I will find savings immediately,” she says, and adds that leaving the EU will bring in a lot of the money needed. 

Macron: 

• Wants to allow firms flexibility on the 35-hour working week
• Retirement age to stay at 62

Le Pen:

• Impose a new tax on the hiring of foreign workers so that French citizens get priority 
• Keep the 35-hour working week 
• Lower the retirement age to 60

Image source, AFP

The exchanges could hardly be sharper. Macron to Le Pen: "I don't lie to the French. You lie."

Le Pen is presenting herself now as the candidate of French families. 

"You are not thinking of the families, I want to restore family benefits that were cut by the government that you were part of.

"Everything can be bought or sold with you. You only see human relations in terms of what they can bring in, in terms of dividends."

 Pierre Briançon is a senior writer at Politico Europe.   

The BBC's Thomas Fessy is following the debate - he says the hosts are struggling.

The candidates have been clashing over their rival visits to the factory in Amiens - when Le Pen was seen as stealing the limelight with an unannounced visit.

Macron accused her of staying for "15 minutes" for a photo opportunity with journalists while he spent "hours" talking with workers worried about their future.

"They understand that you propose nothing," he says.

Le Pen is strongly and repeatedly making a case for keeping more jobs in France. She says Macron has helped sell French companies abroad. She wants to tax companies who take jobs out of the country.

As the two candidates talk over each other, the host interrupts: “We can’t hear ourselves think.”

Things are getting heated already, with both candidates talking over each other.

Le Pen has accused Macron being on the side of big companies and more concerned with private interests.

Le Pen: "Don’t play with me, don't play teacher and pupil, it’s not my thing." 

Le Pen and Macron almost mirror each other in what they're wearing: she in a dark blue trouser suit with a white top, black shoes; he in a dark blue suit and tie with a white shirt, black shoes too. 

A British academic has offered her view of Macron's approach to his opponent...