MailOnline panel's verdict on Sunak and Starmer's final debate

Tanakas definitely feels like he's got a bit more of a a bite to him and he's been definitely more challenging and he's been more sort of abruptly certainly come with a bit of a different energy. I don't know whether it's not, it's a fight too late at the end, but certainly he has, you know, he's come come out. I'd say in many ways guns are blazing this time. I would say there is a clear leader between the two and it is Keir Starmer. It is clear that Labour is the party that's trusted on the economy. Keir Starmer acted faster in a gambling situation. He he suspended somebody straight away, whereas the Prime Minister is just like holding it off. The waiting lists do have to be dealt with and you won't get people back to work if they're sick and they will be sick because they're waiting so long for an operation. So that does need to be dealt with. Keir Starmer has that point. The gangs do need to be taken down, but they can't just let everybody in. We haven't got space for everybody. I don't quite know what Keir Starmer's going to do about that. Starmer's plan of targeting the gangs who are smuggling people through on small boats is better than sending them to Rwanda because I think that would take a lot of time and a lot of taxpayers money. And what followed then was a discussion on benefits reform, whilst Starmer tried to illustrate what he thought on and get back on message of those who can work should work. I think the audience in the auditorium responded more positively to Rishi, who pointed to some sick note reform that he tried to put through and indeed the Labour Party's recent record at voting against all of these measures. So Sunak is a little bit angrier, he's a little bit tetchier and he's a bit more direct. And I think this hasn't come across that well in previous interactions with the public. I think head to head with Starmer, he's probably getting the better of him this time. So I think Starmer's slightly more waffly style isn't really doing him any favours here. The thing is with Starmer, he doesn't seem to have many much in the way of the facts and figures in the background. And Sunak was, was actually given some good answers, some really good answers. And he he does argue well, you know, you can tell he is quite passionate about what he wants to do. Kia's argument around the triple log, it was it was quite poor. He didn't really answer the question. He kind of almost glossed over it. And Sunak really pressed him around this, this question here. So I think that in many ways, I think Sunak is trying to use the pensioner vote in many ways to kind of keep things going well for him. I was especially disappointed with Rishi Sunak's ending where he was patronising he used the to grand lie again that it's surprising that he used that given how much of A ruckus it caused last time and Keir Starmer rightly called him out on it straight away. Richie clearly comes across as he's dealing with the rich. He's got no idea of how normal people live. People on ordinary wages we live in day-to-day. People on poorer wages living from hand to mouth. I am still swayed to vote Labour. I did find this to be quite interesting as there was some different topics spoken about, including gender and women's rights. I liked how, you know, young people were being more spoken about and the future of young people is, you know, acknowledged in a way. Starmer tried to get across that he was looking to renegotiate a deal with the Europeans though though, though Rishi was able to point out that a bargaining chip often put forward by Brussels would be the reintroduction of freedom of movement. Starmer rejected that notion and said that he'd stick with it. But I don't think either either of the candidates came across as convincing. So I think Starmer did come into his own a little bit more in the second-half of the debate and he actually looked quite prime ministerial, particularly when he was talking about women's rights. But overall, I'd say Sunak got the better of him this evening. I, I, I I'm not really worried about taxes. If I have to pay a little bit more and the country's better for it, I really don't mind. So I wouldn't, you know, keep harping on about and arguing about it between the two of them. Obviously we don't want to pay more than we have to, but I'm happy to pay a bit if it's going to make the country better. So, yeah, I think I'm still voting for Richie Sunak. And that's that's really sort of made my decision final now.