The final game in the Sunak/Starmer Debate Cup was a messy draw

Like the England football team, the Labour leader limped his way to an underwhelming victory against the prime minister, writes Joe Murphy

Starmer and Sunak during the BBC head-to-head debate on Wednesday evening (PA)

There was no handshake at the end. After 75 minutes of name calling, Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak couldn’t wait to see the backs of each other. Don’t be surprised if there are no head-to-head debates at all in the 2029 general election.

Sunak marched from his car outside Nottingham Trent University looking tense and grim – a contrast with Starmer, who strolled in beaming, pausing for a chat with some BBC top brass. A fresh arrival from Mars could not mistake which of the two is 20 points ahead in the polls.

Brassy, imperious fanfares then announced the final time these two will have to endure proximity until they sit on opposite sides of the House of Commons despatch boxes next month.

It was called, portentously, The BBC Prime Ministerial Debate, but there really wasn’t much prime ministerial behaviour from the individual who actually holds the title of prime minister. Rishi Sunak was in shin-kicking, finger-jabbing mode – a snappy cornered terrier with nothing left to lose and nowhere else to go but forward.

Inevitably, the first question was about the latest gambling scandals and loss of trust in politics. Sue, the questioner, shook her head sadly as she spoke.

Sunak, brow furrowed, claimed he had been “crystal clear” about this all along, despite taking 13 days to withdraw support from Craig Williams, his own bag carrier who had “a flutter” on the election date. Even less plausibly, he claimed loss of trust was caused by Starmer “changing your mind on every issue”, rather than Partygate and sundry other “gates”, from PPE contracts to gold wallpaper, from donors to peerages.

Starmer won warm applause for his oft-used line about “restoring public service in politics”, a theme that has increased in relevance as the campaign wore on. Sue looked approving. But just as you thought it was all going Labour’s way, Sunak managed to change the subject to tax. He achieved this by simply talking over both Starmer and chair Mishal Husain, ignoring the usual rules of debate for a pure Hunger Games approach.

“Keir Starmer is not being straight with you about his plans to raise your taxes,” he bellowed. Sunak’s newest hook is “Do not surrender”, as in “do not surrender to their tax rises” which he adapted later to “do not surrender our borders”, etc. He even had the brass neck to urge voters to “continue tax cuts with the Conservatives”, ignoring the trifling matter of a record tax burden, up £75bn this parliament.

Starmer appeared ready. Having kicked himself for being too reticent in their first election head-to-head three weeks ago, on ITV, he had comeback lines ready. “That’s the mistake Liz Truss made,” he scoffed over unfunded tax cuts. Another was: “I think the PM has had a bet on how many times he can interrupt me.”

The problem is that Starmer plays like the England team at the moment. You know that he is guaranteed to go through, but he doesn’t exactly set the pitch on fire. Topics are patted gently between defenders until inevitably the other side runs forward to take the ball, which Sunak did repeatedly.

“Complete nonsense,” Starmer kept grumbling as Sunak continued to repeat his tarnished claim that Labour would hike taxes “by thousands of pounds”. But either the Labour leader’s microphone was turned lower than Sunak’s, or he was talking too quietly to counter the charge.

Mary wanted to know how they would get people off benefits, prompting some rough tackles. “You literally opposed it,” said Sunak, jabbing a finger at Labour for voting against laws to curb welfare claims. “If you listened to people, you wouldn’t be so out of touch,” countered Starmer.

Steve asked why Britain seemed unable to control its borders, prompting Sunak to stoop to Nigel Farage standards of rhetoric. “If Labour wins, the people smugglers will need a bigger boat,” he jeered, jabbing at Starmer “what would you do?” To the Labour leader’s proposal to return unfounded asylum claimants, Sunak scoffed he was “taking people for fools” by suggesting he could “do a deal with the ayatollahs”.

With record numbers of small boats crossings this year, the immigration section should have humiliated Sunak. But he managed to outpace his rival on the pitch.

Husain did not try very hard to make Sunak shut up. But then the free-for-all made better telly.

“Where’s the money coming from?” asked Mohammad, triggering more furious finger-pointing from Sunak, this time about something he called “a retirement tax – capital R, capital T”. Starmer pleaded with voters “don’t go back to Liz Truss Mk 2 with this PM”. Ms Truss remains Labour’s biggest asset in this campaign.

The best question of the night came from Robert, who looked the pair squarely in the eyes and asked: “Are you two really the best we’ve got?”

As if to confirm that nothing had changed the dial, YouGov replied with a poll showing the rivals, like the England team, had nothing to show but another messy draw.