Theresa May asks for mandate to lead as election campaigning begins

LATEST: Theresa May asked voters for the mandate to lead post-Brexit Britain as she rallied Tory troops for the looming election campaign ahead.

Theresa May asks for mandate to lead as election campaigning begins

UPDATE 6.30pm: Theresa May asked voters for the mandate to lead post-Brexit Britain as she rallied Tory troops for the looming election campaign ahead.

The Prime Minister gave a short speech in a parish hall in Walmsley, a village in the Labour target seat of Bolton North East, as the scramble for votes begins hours after MPs voted to clear the way for the June 8 poll.

Mrs May, surrounded by party activists and supporters, but addressing voters, said: "Only you can give us the mandate, so vote for a strong and stable leadership in this country.

"Vote for strong and stable leadership this country needs.

"Give me the mandate to lead Britain. Give me the mandate to speak for Britain.

"Give me the mandate to fight for Britain. And give me the mandate to deliver for Britain."

EARLIER: Theresa May has been accused of trying to "run away" from scrutiny as broadcasters appeared set to hold election TV debates despite her refusal to take part.

ITV confirmed it will host a leaders' debate during the general election campaign, while a senior BBC journalist said the corporation would not let a single politician stop a programme which was in the public interest.

Mrs May faced taunts of "frit" from Labour backbenchers at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, as leader Jeremy Corbyn accused her of running scared of scrutiny on her record.

The Prime Minister confirmed on Wednesday that she will not face Mr Corbyn and other party leaders in live TV debates in the run-up to the June 8 poll, insisting that campaigning should be about getting "out and about" meeting voters.

There have been calls for TV broadcasters to "empty chair" Mrs May in election-time leaders' debates if she refuses to take part.

But she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We won't be doing television debates."

ITV confirmed that it will stage a leaders' debate as it did in 2010 and 2015.

No details of format or date have yet been released, but it is expected that Julie Etchingham will host the programme, as she did in 2015, when seven leaders including David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg took part in a two-hour showdown.

Meanwhile the BBC's head of newsgathering Jonathan Munro told The Telegraph that he did "not want to get in a position where any party leader stops us doing a programme that we think is in the public interest".

Mr Munro added: "There is a proven track record over two elections and two referendums that debates reach huge audiences including a lot of young people who don't watch conventional political coverage in great numbers.

"We think it is very much in their interest that peak time debates go ahead. In 2010 and 2015 the number of young and first time voters going to the polls was up on previous elections.

"We believe there was a relationship between that and the audience the debates pulled in. It helps engagement with hard-to-reach audiences."

Explaining her stance, Mrs May said: "I believe in campaigns where politicians actually get out and about and meet with voters.

"That's what I have always believed in, it's what I still believe and I still do it - as Prime Minister, as a constituency MP, I still go out and knock on doors in my constituency.

"That's what I believe in doing, that's what I'm going to be doing around this campaign."

Responding to ITV's announcement, Mr Corbyn said: "I welcome ITV's decision to attempt to hold a TV debate with the Prime Minister. If Theresa May is so proud of her record, why won't she debate it?

"She cannot be allowed to run away from her duty to democracy and refuse to let the British people hear the arguments directly."

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn

And Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who faced Mrs May when they were rival candidates at the 1992 general election in North West Durham, said: "The British people deserve to hear party leaders set out their plans and debate them publicly. But the Prime Minister has refused to take part in televised leaders' debates.

"The Prime Minister and I, back in 1992, debated publicly, forcibly and amicably when we were both candidates together.

"Indeed, the Prime Minister called out the then incumbent, who did not show up for some of those debates.

"Why will she not publicly debate these issues now - what is she scared of?"

At Prime Minister's Questions the Scottish National Party's leader in the Commons, Angus Robertson asked: "If the Prime Minister is so confident of her hard-Brexit, pro-austerity, anti-immigration case, why won't she debate opposition leaders?"

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood - whose profile received a major boost from her involvement in two of the 2015 broadcasts - said: "Theresa May should be empty chaired if she doesn't show up to any planned TV debates."

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also argued that "broadcasters should empty chair her and go ahead anyway".

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