Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer will go head-to-head in their first televised debate of the general election on 4 June.

The two leaders will appear on ITV at 9pm for an hour, the channel has announced.

“Sunak v Starmer: The ITV Debate” will be moderated by journalist Julie Etchingham and will take place live in front of a studio audience.

The programme is the first in a series of head-to-head debates set to be held by various broadcasters.

Sky News is planning its own leaders event in the key battleground seat of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, where we have been regularly reporting on the issues facing local residents..

Voters will be given the opportunity to put questions directly to the leaders.

Labour leader Sir Keir has agreed to attend, while negotiations are ongoing with Mr Sunak’s team.

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The decision to hold the debate in Grimsby comes after the seat turned Conservative in 2019 for the first time since the end of the Second World War.

Many people at the time felt a cultural rift with the Labour Party.

Grimsby has now been combined with Cleethorpes, where the Tories have been in power since 2010, but support is fading.

Cleethorpes has been a bellweather seat since its formation in 1997, backing the largest party in Westminster in all seven elections since then.

The constituency contains a rural conservative base, as well as urban voters, who in more recent years backed the promises of levelling up and Brexit offered by the Conservatives.

The complex composition of this new constituency means it is shaping up to be a key battleground

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