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  • Good evening and welcome to Maidstone Studios in Kent.

  • Wherever you live, whoever you vote for, one of these two men

  • will be prime minister in a week's time.

  • Welcome to the Media Spin Room for the last debate

  • of the UK's general election campaign

  • here in sunny Maidstone.

  • Boris Johnson has been going head to head

  • with Jeremy Corbyn on the question of who should be

  • the UK's next prime minister?

  • It comes just a couple of days before the country

  • is set to go to the polls and answer

  • that question for itself.

  • So who won then?

  • You have made that quite clear.

  • The point is... the point is...

  • Well, according to the pollsters, YouGov,

  • 52 per cent of viewers thought Boris Johnson was triumphant,

  • compared to 48 per cent for Jeremy Corbyn.

  • Yes, we are curt as a nation.

  • It seems that ratio is going to define everything forevermore.

  • On different topics of the debate,

  • different candidates fared better.

  • On the issue of Brexit, Boris Johnson's clear message

  • of "get Brexit done" seemed to connect with the audience

  • and got the most applause.

  • Whereas, Jeremy Corbyn's stance of staying neutral

  • came under much scrutiny and criticism.

  • You cannot be neutral on questions like this any more,

  • in my view, than you can try to lead this country and be

  • neutral on the issue of Brexit.

  • But when it came to the issue of the economy and the future

  • of public services, the Labour leader scored better.

  • He made the strong case for socialism over capitalism.

  • And Boris Johnson?

  • Yes, he did struggle.

  • Your party has presided over cuts

  • in our NHS, increased waiting times and waiting lists,

  • record number of people delayed in getting appointments,

  • and a social care system that is in crisis.

  • But the debate became rather testy at moments.

  • Whereas Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn clashed on the issue of racism

  • and anti-Semitism, things got a little heated here in the Spin

  • Room, particularly between Labour's Barry Gardiner

  • and the Conservative Matt Hancock.

  • Do you know the answer to the question

  • that has held in limbo British politics for the last three

  • and a half years?

  • No, no, you've held it in limbo.

  • No, parliament has held it in limbo.

  • No, no, you had a majority in parliament,

  • and you threw it away.

  • You had a majority...

  • Are you saying that parliament...

  • You had the majority.

  • You're are agreeing with me that parliament's blocked it.

  • No, no, I'm...

  • But the question, Barry, is...

  • You see, you were the government.

  • For three and a half years, you were the government...

  • We tried.

  • ...and you failed to get it through.

  • No...

  • We failed to get it through because parliament

  • kept blocking it.

  • No...

  • But the question of who you want to be the next prime minister

  • ultimately comes down to one of leadership.

  • Who is the person people want to run the country?

  • And according to YouGov.

  • and according to what the audience said here,

  • it was Boris Johnson who fared better.

  • He was the one who seemed more prime ministerial

  • and had better answers to those tough questions

  • from the audience.

  • Let's look at this at the state of the campaign.

  • The Conservatives are 10 points ahead.

  • That means that with nothing changed between now

  • and next Thursday, then Boris Johnson will be prime minister.

  • And this wasn't the game-changing moment Labour

  • needs.

  • Jeremy Corbyn is still way behind in personality ratings.

  • And it seems almost impossible he's

  • going to be able to make that up between now and next Thursday.

  • So if everything stands as it did tonight,

  • then Boris Johnson is set to win.

  • And the country will vote for a Conservative majority

  • next Thursday.

Good evening and welcome to Maidstone Studios in Kent.

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