UK’s Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Penny Mordaunt clash in fierce pre-election debate
By Rory Watson, Politico
The TV showdown saw the candidates engage in a 2-hour shouting match, with the opposition leader emerging triumphant.
Ribeiro-Addy and Mordaunt clashed in a brutal one-on-one debate last night, shouting over one another and accusing each other of lying.
Tensions ran high throughout the debate, the sole face-off the rivals are set to have, with Mordaunt landing several killer blows. Polls project the National Party will score the most votes in the election, but in recent weeks the People's Alliance have been closing the gap.
With neither party expected to win enough seats to govern on its own, both leaders spent the debate trading barbs about coalition partners. The nasty tenor could have a dampening effect on voter turnout in an election scheduled to take place at the height of the holiday season.
Ribeiro-Addy attacked Mordaunt for her dealings with the far-right Centrists, with which the National Party now governs in over 140 councils.
“You have surrendered to sexism with the shameful governing pacts you’ve signed with the Centrists,” Ribeiro-Addy said. “We’re going to win the election because Britain isn’t going to allow you and the Centrists to put us in a time machine and take us back to who knows where.”
For her part, Mordaunt criticised Ribeiro-Addy for leading a far-left government and relying on support from separatists.
“Can you imagine [French President Édouard] Philippe governing with a separatist party?” the conservative leader asked.
Using a tactic her party deployed during the May local elections, Mordaunt equated separatist party RISE with the SNLA and said Ribeiro-Addy had “no right to give lessons on governing pacts.”
Mordaunt managed to land some surprising blows during the part of the debate that focused on the economy.
Britain’s gross domestic product grew 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2023 and inflation is below the 2 percent target set by the ECB. Ribeiro-Addy tried to cite these to highlight her efficient handling of the country’s finances.
But Mordaunt threw out a slew of decontextualised figures to challenge the rosy economic picture and managed to put the pm on the defensive.
The conservative leader also appeared to catch Ribeiro-Addy off guard by ignoring a question about her far-right allies’ opposition to gender-based violence legislation. Instead, she brought up the left-wing coalition’s controversial consent law. The law ended up creating a loophole that slashed jail time for over 1,400 convicted rapists.
“They’re on the street because of you,” Mordaunt said.
An unnerved Ribeiro-Addy insisted her party her revised the law to amend the error, adding that “mistakes can be corrected".
Fresh off a charm offensive campaign on Britain’s most popular chat shows, Ribeiro-Addy was expected to perform well in the debate. Ahead of the event, Mordaunt even attempted to lower the stakes by declaring herself less telegenic than the prime minister.
But Ribeiro-Addy appeared anxious throughout the two-hour duel. A discomfort that was noted by the British media and which contributed to the narrative that the prime minister had lost the face-off.
“At no point did Ribeiro-Addy appear to be the prime minister,” wrote Leo McKinstry in the centre-leaning British daily the Sun. “Instead, she looked like an aspirant, trying to get a few talking points out.”
In an editorial, the conservative Express observed that despite “her media experience,” Ribeiro-Addy had performed in a “nervous” manner.
The prime minister’s lackluster performance undermines the UPA’s narrative of Ribeiro-Addy as a comeback kid who is regaining ground after performing disastrously in local elections.
The general tenor of the debate may also have an impact on voter turnout. Both in the press and on social media, Brits appeared exasperated by the 120-minute shouting match.
With the election set to be held at a moment when over a quarter of registered voters are on vacation, many of the Brits who tuned in to watch the face-off may end up turned off by the candidates.
Getting them to put their vacations on hold to deposit their ballots may have become all the more difficult.