Corbyn would have been a better PM than Johnson – Keir Starmer

The leaders of the two main political parties appeared to struggle at points as the audience pushed them to explain how they would fund major policies on housing and defence.

Quizzed about his national service policy, Mr Sunak insisted the insisted the military route was optional, despite the proposed scheme being compulsory.

When asked about what sanctions people could face for not taking part, Mr Sunak pointed to “access to finance” among other examples.

Asked if this meant taking away people’s bank cards, he laughed, and said: “There’s lot of different models around Europe.”

Sir Keir promised to pass legislation to introduce rent controls to cap annual rent increases – ensuring they are no higher than inflation.

On migration, the Labour leader said he wanted to bring the numbers “down significantly”, but refused to put a number on it, despite being asked how it was then possible to staff public services.

And on NHS waiting lists – a big topic during the interviews – Sir Keir said that over course of Parliament, a Labour government would get them down and clear the backlog entirely.