The two men clash in a heated debate about taxes, health and the cost of living, but fail to land a decisive blow.

The leaders of Britain's two largest parties faced off in their first live televised debate of the election campaign, arguing over issues such as tax, immigration and the National Health Service (NHS).

Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, spoke on Tuesday evening in the north-western city of Salford, one month before the Elections on July 4th.

Sunak, whose party is trailing by around 20 percentage points in the opinion polls, took a combative approach, slamming Labour over tax policy, pointing out that inflation had fallen to two percent and that he had a plan to stimulate the sluggish economy.

Starmer referred to the austerity measures of the Conservatives' early years in government and the chaos of the recent past, in which then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson was ousted amid financial and ethics scandals, as well as the brief but devastating 49-day Liz Truss’s term in officewhose tax cut plans drove up mortgages.

Sunak became party leader and prime minister in October 2022.

The Labour leader said the election would be a choice between more “chaos and division” with the Conservatives and “a new chapter and rebuilding with Labour”.

Both men were repeatedly warned to keep quiet and to lower their voices as they clashed on issues ranging from immigration to education to health care, but neither presented any new plans.

Sunak, a former banker and one of Britain's richest people, drew groans when he blamed NHS waiting lists Doctor goes on strikeand was greeted with laughter when he said the numbers were going down “because they were higher before.”

However, he seemed to gain ground on the audience when he spoke about how he would tackle immigration. His controversial plan to Asylum seekers to Rwanda was daunting.

Starmer said he also had a plan to tackle immigration and would consider processing asylum claims in a third country as long as it did not violate international law.

After the debate concluded, a YouGov snap poll showed Sunak with a slight lead, with 51 percent saying he had performed better overall, compared with 49 percent for Starmer.

However, when broken down by issue, Starmer performed significantly better on the cost of living, NHS, education and climate change, according to respondents. Sunak was only given a good performance on tax and – by a narrow margin – on immigration.

Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said the evening was likely to be seen as a positive for Sunak given his party is so far behind in the polls.

“Will it matter in the end? Probably not. But it is good news for Cons[ervatives] after a pretty rough few days. Will at least help morale,” he wrote on X.

The preparations for the clash were overshadowed by the populist politician Nigel Faragewho announced this week that he would run for a seat in parliament as leader of the right-wing, anti-immigration Reform Party.

Farage, who once held a seat in the European Parliament, failed seven times in his bid to become a British MEP. This time he is standing in the eastern English seaside town of Clacton, which supported his favourite Brexit policy and where the incumbent Conservative won a majority of almost 26,000 votes in 2019.

Opinion polls suggest that Labour has maintained its lead over the Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010, in the almost two weeks since the election campaign began.

Several debates are planned before election day, some of which will involve several party leaders and the two leading candidates.