Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer BBC debate: fact checked - Full Fact
The leader of the Conservative party, Rishi Sunak, and the leader of the Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer, will be participating in a debate on the BBC tonight. This will be the final debate between the two before the election on 4 July.
The show will be on TV on BBC One, airing from Nottingham at 8:15pm, and presented by Mishal Husain.
Full Fact's team of fact checkers will be watching the program as it happens, examining the statements made by politicians and pointing out any that we believe to be incorrect, deceptive, or in need of further explanation.
Check out our most recent fact checks regarding the upcoming general election.
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Tips For Accurate Fact Checking
You can stay informed with our latest posts on X (previously known as Twitter) during the program. Once the program ends, we will update this post with a comprehensive summary of all the information we gathered.
You can also participate - if you see something you believe we should look into, please mention the @FullFact account on X and we will try our hardest to investigate.
Checking Facts In Real Time: Our Debate Strategy
Checking the accuracy of election debates in real-time is a challenging task, but we have a lot of expertise in this area.
Throughout this election season, we have conducted real-time fact-checking on multiple occasions such as the BBC Question Time Leaders' Special, the ITV debate between Mr. Sunak and Mr. Starmer, and the Sky News election special where both politicians were present. Additionally, we covered BBC's Debate Night which showcased the leaders of Scottish political parties, as well as the BBC and ITV debates that included representatives from seven different parties.
During parliamentary sessions, we routinely fact check the Prime Minister's Questions every week. In 2022, we examined the debates for the Conservative leadership contest as well. Additionally, we have provided live fact-checking for TV debates during past general elections.
During the BBC debate, our fact-checking team will be closely watching statements using our AI technology. We are a small group, so we may not be able to check every claim, but we will try to provide a quick assessment whenever possible (firstly on X).
Certain statements may be harder to verify than they initially seem, or may need additional research. Therefore, during the show, we will focus on claims that we are already familiar with or that can be quickly verified using public sources. Any claims that require deeper investigation will be thoroughly examined after the debate is over.
Photo provided by HM Treasury/UK Parliament
