Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed he would remain neutral in a Brexit referendum during a heated Question Time special where Boris Johnson was booed over his Brexit stance.
The party leaders endure a 30-minute grilling from the audience, where Mr Johnson came under fire over racist and homophobic remarks he previously made in newspaper articles.
Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson was given a tough time by Leavers and Remainers over her party’s pledge to scrap Brexit while Nicola Sturgeon insisted she would prop up a Corbyn-led government – at the price of an independence referendum.
Key facts as Johnson, Corbyn, Swinson and Sturgeon prepare for BBC Question Time Leaders' Special
Party leaders are braced for a two-hour Question Time special, as the election campaign enters a critical phase. Boris Johnson, Nicola Sturgeon, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson will each have a 30-minute slot where they will face questions from the studio audience.
The one-off Question Time episode takes place in Sheffield and will see Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Nicola Sturgeon have half an hour each to debate with a live studio audience.
Running order is - Corbyn, Sturgeon, Swinson and then Johnson.
How much do televised leaders' debates affect public opinion?
Dr Knut Roder, a senior politics lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, has sent over some helpful insight into how tonight's Question Time special might impact the election.
How are favourites determined after a television election debate? Are they reliable means of understanding public opinion?
Dr Roder says: “Favourites after election debates are determined by evaluations and interpretations of their performance in the media and immediate public polling.
"This may include fact checking exercises. In the case of the media, determining favourites is often very partisan, with media outlets perceiving the performance of the candidate closest to their own editorial line in a more positive light.
"I would not judge this as a reliable means of public opinion, in particular if the public debate did not produce an obvious winner, or if neither of the contestants spectacularly tripped up.
"In this respect parties go to great length to have ‘spin doctors’ and officials re-interpreting what their candidate has been saying and declaring his or her contributions as winning the argument.”
Dr Knut Roder, a senior politics lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, says: “Debates certainly don’t offer an accurate understanding of election outcomes. However, they do reveal the key narratives and issue lines over which candidates and their parties fight the election.
"And if one party gets it wrong – like a Conservative policy under May being successfully renamed by Labour as a dementia tax in 2017 – the opponent will and can dominate television debates by referring back to such problematic narratives in order to undermine and weaken the opponent.
"And in the case of TV debates with wide audiences, such narratives can stick and influence the election outcome.
"Expect 2019 key narratives around the NHS, austerity, anti-Semitism, Russian interference in the 2017 election etc… It remains to be seen, if the ‘getting Brexit done’ and ‘Labour has no position on Brexit’ will gain more traction during debates than ‘Brexit makes us all poorer’ or ‘give the people a final say’."
- The Brexit Party launched its "Contract for The People"
Nigel Farage unveiled the Brexit Party's election policies, including halving the foreign aid budget, capping permanent immigration at 50,000 a year and scrapping VAT on fuel bills.
- Jeremy Corbyn said he would return the Chagos Islands
The Labour leader pledged to renounce British sovereignty of the remote Chagos Islands after Mauritius's prime minister called the UK "an illegal colonial occupier" for refusing to return them by the United Nations-backed deadline.
- The Tories announced plans for a stamp duty hike on non-UK residents
Boris Johnson has announced that foreign individuals wanting to buy property in England will be forced to pay 3% more in stamp duty than UK residents under a Conservative government.
- John McDonnell said the Institute for Fiscal Studies was 'wrong' on Labour's tax plans
Mr McDonnell rejected the analysis by the IFS that said broader tax increases were needed than the ones proposed in the Labour Party's manifesto. He said that 95% of people would not pay any more tax than they do now and denied that raising corporation tax would mean bosses would cut wages and raise prices.
Addressing the crowds, he said said: "Thank you Sheffield for being here tonight. Thankyou for the lovely city you are.
"And thank you for your support for what we’re doing to build a decent, fair society in Britain that cares for all, not just the few.
"That's our whole project."
Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson are believed to already be inside - unclear where the PM is. He is unlikely to go in through the front, either for security concerns, or to avoid the possibility of being booed.
Reminder, here are the timings for tonight:
7pm: Jeremy Corbyn
7.30pm: Nicola Sturgeon
8pm: Jo Swinson
8.30pm: Boris Johnson
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