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Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said her party was also committed to maintaining the UK’s nuclear deterrent and would reverse cuts to the number of troops in the armed forces.<\/p>\n
The Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the SNP all confirmed they opposed renewing Trident – arguing the money could be better spent on other areas of defence.<\/p>\n
The night’s biggest clashes erupted when Ms Mordaunt repeated the prime minister’s claim that Labour’s plans mean “\u00a32,000 in higher taxes for every working family in our country”.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a lie,” Ms Rayner replied adding that the government has raised taxes to a “record level”.<\/p>\n
“Penny that’s rubbish and you’ve just said we need a strong economy – you backed Liz Truss and crashed our economy,” she added.<\/p>\n
BBC analysis found the claim was misleading. The figure was based on dubious assumptions about Labour’s spending divided by working households over four years.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, in the debate Ms Cooper admitted the Lib Dems breaking their 2010 pledge not to raise tuition fees was still a “sore subject, for sure” for her party.<\/p>\n
But she argued the Lib Dems “fought the Tories every day” during the coalition to lessen the impact of austerity.<\/p>\n
The SNP\u2019s leader at Westminster Stephen Flynn also received several rounds of applause during the night, claiming both Labour and the Conservatives would continue an “austerity agenda” due to their self-imposed rules on getting debt falling as a share of national income.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He also argued for change the tone of the debate on immigration and “too much of it is framed around the bigotry of people like Nigel Farage”.<\/p>\n
Mr Farage was attacked by the SNP, Plaid and the Greens over his immigration stance, but he insisted the “population explosion” raised housing prices and cutting migration to “net zero” would fix it.<\/p>\n
He also appeared to say that he believed the NHS should be abolished, at least in its current form funded by general taxation – arguing French-style insurance system would get better results “for the same money”.<\/p>\n
But the Reform UK leader\u2019s comments about the election campaign being \u201cdull\u201d and \u201cvery dull in the case of Labour\u201d went down well with the audience.<\/p>\n
And he got a round of applause for a call to crack down on knife crime with more \u201cstop and search\u201d.<\/p>\n
Green co-leader Carla Denyer criticised Labour for ditching its policy to spend \u00a328bn a year on its green investment plan.<\/p>\n
“Tackling climate change does us so much good” both economically and environmentally, Ms Denyer argued.<\/p>\n
Rhun ap Iorwerth, Plaid Cymru’s leader, said he had seen a growing lack of trust in politics over the last 30 years, saying politicians need to be honest about taxes and improve fairness in the system.<\/p>\n
He urged for a fairer tax system to stop people like Mr Sunak from paying less on investments than workers do on their “hard graft.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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