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.