Johnson-Corbyn Debate: Why Was Defence Not Mentioned?

With just three weeks to go until the country sees another General Election, Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn went head-to-head for a live televised debate.

It came just four months after the Tory leaders debate in July, where Boris Johnson and the then-Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt battled to win viewers over with their vote.

As it did at the Conservative leaders debate in the summer, defence again struggled to be a hot topic of discussion in Salford on Tuesday night.

In fact this time there was no mention of it at all.

It was up to the party's representatives in the spin room to defend their respective counterpart.

For Labour, Barry Gardiner said he "would have loved" it if the Armed Forces were mentioned in the debate.

"Because of what we said about caring for veterans, of what we said of increasing the pay of the Armed Forces," Mr Gardiner said in the spin room.

Mr Gardiner also made reference to Labour's pledge to provide "decent" military accommodation for forces families.

Watch: Barry Gardiner: defence didn't get a look in 'at all' at leaders debate.

For the Conservatives, Nigel Evans, defended Mr Johnson's lack of discussion on defence: "Boris Johnson did talk about the public services and the defence, of course, of our realm is one of the most important things that you could do," he said.

Mr Evans, then, with his political hat on, claimed "People far more trust the Conservative than they ever would Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party."

He then said Mr Corbyn wants to "reduce" the amount of personnel in the forces, further accusing the party of wanting to cut spending on defence.

In an interview with Forces News, Jeremy Corbyn himself said Labour would maintain the current level of defence spending, which is 2% of GDP.

Watch: Nigel Evans: Tories 'committed to at least 2% defence spend'.

According to figures, obtained by YouGov, 51% of Brits believe Mr Johnson won the debate, while 49% believe Mr Corbyn won.

But the question of who the public could trust was swiftly answered after the debate - with 40% voting Mr Johnson, 45% Mr Corbyn and 15% were unsure.

Another topic that was put forward was Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The Conservatives say the potential introduction of a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will not cause any issues.

Labour, however,  said there were "serious security concerns" and "trade concerns".

"It's a matter that worries me deeply and it's why we propose we should have a new Customs Union with the European Union," said Mr Gardiner for Labour.

Michael Gove, Conservative, said: "The Irish government, and indeed all of the EU 27 nations, believe that the deal that the Prime Minister has negotiated will underpin the peace process, will make sure the gains that we had since the Belfast agreement are in place, entrenched and underpinned."

In the lead up to the debate, there were criticisms that the debate in Salford failed to include all of the party leaders.

With party's such as the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, Brexit Party and SNPs missing their chance to debate.

They were, however, included in their own show after the debate, and there were also representatives from other parties in the spin room.

Former Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, said it was "disturbing" that climate change wasn't given enough time for the debate.

Richard Tice, for the Brexit Party, described the debate as "spicy" and "firey", adding: "What we as the Brexit Party drew some comfort from was the Prime Minister's confirmation that the transition period will definitely end at the end of December 2020."

Mr Tice said the Conservative pledge was a "key reason" why they decided not to stand against the Conservatives.

Tom Brake, Liberal Democrat, said: "What I also thought was significant was the amount of laughter in the audience when Johnson and Corbyn were replying.

"I think the level of trust that's been shown in them by the audience was very low," Mr Brake added.

The General Election will take place on Thursday 12 December.