Last night saw the first of the TV debates in the run up to the General Election. This was between The Prime Minister, David Cameron and leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband. The programme was hosted by Kay Burley of Sky News and Jeremy Paxman, broadcaster and journalist.
The Prime Minister seemed to avoid giving substantial answers to any questions, both in the Q & A with the studio audience and including the two below from Paxman, which seemed to have him floundering:
"How many more food banks are there in the UK than in 2010?"
He was unable to put a specific number on how many more food banks in the UK since 2010.
"Would you be able to work on a zero-hours contract?"
Initially he didn't give an answer, before finally saying he would not be able to work on an exclusive zero-hours contract, most probably driven by the fact his party had introduced a policy around this subject.
Ed Miliband done well in his interview with Paxman, however at times, particularly at the start, Miliband didn't want to be drawn into 'plucking figures out of nowhere', in answer to a question about immigration and the capacity of the United Kingdom. To some audience members and the viewing public this may of seemed to be avoiding the question, similar to the tactics of Cameron.
Miliband struggled when questioned as to whether his party's mansion tax policy was in place to move money from the South East to the Scottish NHS, a claim that was made by Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy.
As the time progressed, Ed Miliband gave a string of good answers to every question that was thrown at him by Jeremy Paxman, including personal questions as to whether his brother, David Miliband would of been the better candidate to lead the Labour party.
We can now perhaps see why the Prime Minister didn't want a face-face debate with Ed Miliband.
Did the first TV debate help you decide on who you would be voting for in May and did it really clarify any policies that you wanted answers on?
Below is who 'won' on Twitter, credit to the Press Association.