Hastings' Amber Rudd to stand in for PM at BBC election debate

Hastings and Rye's Conservative candidate is standing in for Prime Minister Theresa May in tonight's BBC leaders' election debate.

By The Newsroom

Published 31st May 2017, 18:26 BST

Updated 4th Jun 2017, 21:15 BST

Ms Rudd pictured with the Prime Minister, Theresa May SUS-170905-102857001

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Lib Dems’ Tim Farron have agreed to appear on the BBC programme, which is being recorded in Cambridge, but Mrs May ruled out taking part in head-to-head debates earlier in the campaign.

Other members of the panel are UKIP leader Paul Nuttall, SNP deputy leader Angus Robertson, Green co-leader Caroline Lucas and Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who was first elected to Hastings and Rye in 2010, will represent the Conservatives in Mrs May’s place.

In a televised debate in the run up to last June’s EU referendum, Mrs Rudd, who backed the Remain campaign, famously described now fellow cabinet member Boris Johnson as the ‘life and soul of the party, but he’s not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening’.

The programme is on BBC One and starts at 7.30pm.