Nick Robinson to grill party leaders for BBC general election coverage

Nick Robinson will present the BBC’s flagship series of TV interviews with party leaders during the general election campaign as broadcasters begin to map out their coverage.

The former BBC political editor, now a presenter on Radio Four’s Today programme, will be taking on the role held by Andrew Neil during the 2019 campaign.

That year, Neil was engaged in a stand-off with Boris Johnson, who refused to take part in the show. Although he issued a series of challenges, the then Tory leader did not agree to an interview.

The current party leaders have yet to formally agree to being interviewed by Mr Robinson, but all are expected to say yes.

The format is likely to be the same as in 2019, when leaders sat down for a one-to-one interview on camera lasting 30 minutes.

Preliminary discussions have been held with broadcasters about the format and frequency of election debates, with both broadcast and party insiders expecting a repeat of the 2019 structure, when Mr Johnson and Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn faced each other twice.

Other formats saw multiple party leaders on the stage at one time, or taking it in turns to answer audience questions.

Some Conservative Party figures believe Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has a greater understanding of the economy than Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, and could show that in the debates.

Usually in election campaigns, the front-runner has most to lose from the debates, which offer whoever is behind in the polls a chance to change the political tide.

With Labour around 20 percentage points ahead of the Tories, Sir Keir is in that position. His team has said he will say yes to election debates.

Reform UK, which has moved ahead of the Liberal Democrats into third place in nationwide polling, will be demanding a spot on as many election debates stages as possible.

Richard Tice, the Reform leader, told The Telegraph that his party needed to be included in election debates. The party’s polling support has roughly doubled since the summer.

Each broadcaster is engaging directly with the political parties on election debates, meaning there is sure to be an element of jostling for position before the final schedule is announced.

GB News is proposing to hold a repeat of its People’s Forum event with Mr Sunak in January, in which audience members asked questions without vetting from the broadcaster’s team.

It had been planning to hold an event each with Mr Sunak and Sir Keir, but January’s programme is being investigated by Ofcom over a possible breach of its impartiality rules, complicating the plans.

Negotiations about election debates will heat up over the summer if, as is widely expected, the general election is held in the autumn.