While the leaders of the five opposition parties – Labour’s Ed Miliband, the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon, Ukip’s Nigel Farage, the Green party’s Natalie Bennett and Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood – squared off on the BBC in a challengers debate, Britain wondered: where is prime minister David Cameron?
The second most searched-for question on Google during the debate was: “Why is David Cameron not at the debate?” The only question with higher search volume was: “What is austerity?”
The answer, according to Cameron, is that he wasn’t invited. The prime minister claimed before the debate went ahead without him: “I’m a polite individual and if I’m not invited, I’m not going to try and gatecrash it.”
This line was then repeated on Thursday by Conservative former foreign secretary William Hague, who said after the debate that Cameron had been deliberately excluded.
In fact, the broadcasters originally proposed three debates involving Cameron, but he only agreed to take part in one seven-way contest, which was broadcast on ITV two weeks ago. The Conservatives repeatedly resisted him taking part in more than one debate, including a head-to-head with Miliband, and ruled out doing any during the short campaign.
Nick Clegg also wanted the world to know that he would have participated – had he been invited:
For clarity, I was not invited to #BBCDebate. I would have happily taken part and proudly defended our strong @LibDems record in government.
— Nick Clegg (@nick_clegg) April 16, 2015
Most Googled questions during the debate
- What is austerity?
- Why is David Cameron not at the debate?
- Who should I vote for?
- Where is Natalie Bennett from?
- What is a brownfield site?
- How old is Ed Miliband?
- How old is Nicola Sturgeon?
- Who is Caroline Lucas?
- What is the deficit?
- What does Plaid Cymru mean?
In the opening remarks, Miliband was the most searched-for participant before being overtaken by Sturgeon, following her heated exchange with Farage over immigration. However, in the latter stages of the debate, searches for Bennett spiked. By the end of the event they stood at five times those for Miliband and 10 times those of Farage.
Most searched for participants, in order:
- Natalie Bennett
- Ed Miliband
- Nigel Farage
- Nicola Sturgeon
- Leanne Wood
Towards the end of the debate the most searched-for questions were “what is Trident?, “what is Nato?” and “what is right to buy?”.
