Bev Turner rages at Julie Etchingham over handling of Sunak and Starmer debate: 'Let them at it!'
ITV's leadership debate moderator Julie Etchingham has been criticised by GB News presenter Bev Turner after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer locked horns.
The Tory and Labour chiefs traded blows for the first time in the General Election campaign ahead of the 4th July ballot.
ITV's Julie Etchingham mediated Sunak and Starmer, often interjecting when their clashes became overly heated.
Keeping the leaders strict on their time limits, Sunak and Starmer were also warned to "lower their voices" during an impassioned exchange on migration.
Bev Turner has criticised ITV's Julie Etchingham for her efforts in moderating the leadership debate
GB News / ITV
Reacting to the political debate on GB News, host Bev Turner admitted she got "a little irritated" with Etchingham, and that the host should have "let them at it" rather than calming the situation down.
Bev told co-host Andrew Pierce: "I got a little irritated, I have to say, with Julie Etchingham trying to calm them down.
"Saying let's be civil, lower your voices - no, let them at it! We want to see what they are like under pressure! Let them take bites out of each other!"
Andrew agreed and compared Etchingham to like a "mum at a dinner table".
Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer clashed several times throughout the leadership debate
ITV
Andrew swiped: "It was like saying to the two kids 'would you lower your voices?' Let's use our indoor voices is kind of what you're saying."
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Discussing who they believe performed better in the debate overall, Andrew admitted that he thought "Sunak won", because he "managed to land the blow that he wanted to".
Andrew explained: "Sunak claimed if you vote Labour you're going to get a big tax bill. And it took nearly about halfway through the debate or even longer before Starmer finally said these figures aren't right. Why didn't he challenge it immediately?
"He had a free run on tax, which is why in the headlines it's 'Labour accused on tax' in The Times, and Telegraph says 'Starmer on the ropes on tax'."
Highlighting Sunak's key blow to Starmer about the alleged "£2,000 higher tax bill" under a Labour government, Bev questioned why Starmer didn't hit back at Sunak or defend the proposals.
Bev hit out at Etchingham and said she should have 'let them at it'
GB News
Bev told GB News: "It's actually over four years, the tax. I don't know why Keir Starmer didn't say that.
"Why didn't he say it might be that you have to pay that, but it's over four years and if that means you get better public services, if that means you can see your NHS, it might be that you'd be prepared to pay that."
Criticising Starmer's performance in the debate, Andrew then added: "He was flat footed and leaden.
"When you consider he's the lawyer, and Sunak's been Prime Minister for nearly two years now, but I think Sunak wanted to label him as the high tax man. And he succeeded in that respect. Although of course, the moment when the audience laughed was at Sunak over NHS waiting lists."