The Final Debate

More in Common’s snap polling of 1,525 debate watchers finds that those who watched the debate think Starmer won against Sunak by a margin of 56% to 44%.

More in Common also asked whether the leaders fell short of or exceeded the public’s expectations for the debate.

• In general, both candidates met the debate watchers’ expectations
• But debate watchers’ were more likely to say Sunak performed better than expected - 30% said that Sunak performed better than expected, compared to 19% who said the same for Starmer

On specific issues, debate watchers were more likely to believe Starmer than Sunak on all issues, although there was some variation in how well he performed.

• Viewers were most likely to believe Starmer on the NHS and bringing integrity to politics, where more than half of viewers trusted Starmer
• Sunak performed better on tax an immigration, although Starmer beat him narrowly on both
• For around three in ten viewers, “neither” was more believed than both candidates on each of the categories

At the same time, we spoke to a focus group of debate viewers in Basildon and Billericay to hear what they thought of the debate. You can read more about that here.

This page will be updated with more analysis and full data tables in the coming hours.