UK ELECTION: Voters grill May, Corbyn on live TV

The leaders of Britain’s two main parties Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn appeared on national television and were grilled by voters on live TV six days before Britons go to the polls.

Conservative prime minister, May joined her main opponent, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn after initially avoiding a TV debate with other leaders earlier this week, in taking questions in front of a studio audience.

The pair were made to answer questions bothering on social care, climate and defence, days before a snap poll.

May was accused of “broken promises” for going for an early election on June 8 after she had repeatedly said she would not, and for a U-turn on a key manifesto pledge on elderly social care.

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“I could have stayed on doing that job for another couple of years and not called an election. I had the balls to call an election,” May told the studio audience of BBC’s Question Time programme in York, northern England.

Corbyn also faced the same audience and his own tough questions over his party’s manifesto of spending promises. e was also criticised on his record on defence.

The leftist leader’s lifelong opposition to nuclear weapons has drawn severe criticism from within his own party, and he was heckled on Friday for refusing to say whether he would launch a retaliatory strike if Britain were attacked.

“If we did use it, millions are going to die. You have to think these things through. I will decide on the circumstances at the time,” Corbyn said.

He said it was a “shame” that May refused to debate head-to-head with him before the election, and accused May of failing to stand up to the US over its withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.

 

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