Question Time is running its leaders special. The leaders will have 30 minutes each to answer questions from a live audience in York. They are, in order of appearance:

• LibDem: Ed Davey
• SNP: John Swinney
• Labour: Keir Starmer
• Tory: Rishi Sunak

The debate can be seen on:

• BBC One
• BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone

Fiona Bruce is running affairs. Reform (who have just polled above the Tories again) and the Greens have been given a programme next week. Guido will provide live text-based updates below…

UPDATE: That’s proceedings over. A bit of a snoozefest…

• 19-year-old asks what Sunak can offer him. He says tax cuts.
• Someone says only Russia and Belarus aren’t part of the ECHR. Sunak says we don’t need a foreign court. Says he will put national security first every single time. To cries of shame from the audience…
• Question: are you seriously considering leaving ECHR? Especially with strategically flawed Rwanda plan. Sunak says 15 European countries agree with him. Argues with questioner.
• Sunak asked about regrets. Says of course there are things. When pushed says he wishes they made more progress on waiting lists.
• Sunak asked by Bruce: How do you think it’s going? Sunak says it was the right time to call it. Says he was proved right with Truss and he will be proved right now. Starmer is offering same fantasy as Truss.
• Why did you call election early? We got economic stability, Sunak thought that was the right moment to consider future.
• Illegal immigration: Why not have Australia-style policies? Sunak says removals are that.
• Sunak touts migration cap. Says people need to be able to support dependents who come over.
• More arguing about NHS.
• NHS waiting lists. Sunak says waiting lists are starting to come down over the past five months. Questioner says he is not convinced. Sunak issues a fairly acidic-sounding response.
• Brexit: Sunak touts freeports.
• National service – running through previous arguments including military personnel arguing against it. Sunak says sanctions and incentives will be used to make the whole thing compulsory, but doesn’t go into specifics.
• Question about gambling: Sunak says he was incredibly angry to learn about it. Says if anyone is found to have broken the law they will be booted out of party.
• Sunak says he argued against Truss’ policies, judge him on his time in office.
• Question: PM churn. Are you embarrassed to be leading us into this campaign?
• Sunak up.
• Starmer done.
• Question: What will you do about high rents? Starmer says bidding wars need to end. Starmer says scheme in place will stop rents being driven up, without any specific details.
• Private school question: will this not put strain on system? Starmer says usual all parents are aspirational line.
• Trans question: What do you believe now on gender? Starmer says he believes Blair that men have penises and women have vaginas in biology. He will give respect to everyone. He was worried when he attacked Duffield about the state of the debate. Attacks Sunak for making trans joke in Parliament.
• Starmer swerves Bruce pressure on how Labour can set plan targets for things like housing if it doesn’t know how many people will be coming in.
• Question: Why not put migration target? Starmer says he won’t set arbitrary figure because they are never met. Talks about skills strategy.
• Question on Starmer U-turns: Tuition fees pledged was dropped because economy got worse. Goes through some others to claim that the pledges were too expensive.
• Refuses to say when people will be able to be sure that they can feel improvement in NHS.Pledges backlog cleared by end of Parliament.
• Starmer justifies 4-year plan for NHS – politicians are not honest about how long things will take to fix.
• Says he is worried about trends in Europe.
• Starmer told to return to circle for lighting.
• Starmer questioned on taxes. Rattles off ones that won’t be raised. Says money will go into defence and NHS.
• Bruce brings up Starmer saying that Corbyn would be great PM. He says he was campaigning for Labour Party. Did you mean it, she asks? Starmer refuses to answer. Went so far as to say: :Look, he would be a better”…
• Starmer says he campaigned for Labour, he did a lot of work to change party afterwards. All analysis said the manifesto had too much. Attack on Truss’ manifesto and says Sunak’s has unfunded manifesto commitments.
• Question: Corbyn jibe at manifesto. Why did you back his 2019 one?
• Starmer up.
• Swinney done.
• Question: Why not devolve more powers instead of independence? Swinney says independent countries are fairer and more equal.
• Question: Who’s better, Starmer or Sunak? Swinney says Tories have been a calamity. Labour will win in England.
• Swinney says CCC will accept that fossil fuels will be needed for time to come. We need to look at energy security. Judgements have to be made on case by case basis. Loss and damage agreements with other countries.
• Question: fossil fuels, new oil wells, that’s not compatible with climate change goals.
• Swinney: We’ve lost continuity of EU membership. The sooner we can get back in the better.
• Question: Should Scotland not get another EU referendum?
• Bruce pressures Swinney on larger NHS waiting lists in Scotland: Swinney says it’s the nature of health problems.
• Swinney rattles off some statistics about SNP record.
• Question: How can you convince me that you can lead a successful independent nation when the party has destroyed itself from the top down?
• Swinney: Independence is front and centre. Vote for SNP for independence.
• Swinney: We’ve been minority government for ages so we need friends and allies to pass legislation. We should have no whiff of complacency. Swinney says he has played a part in the polarisation of debate, now he’s reaching out.
• Question: Is change in electoral system needed to change SNP complacency?
• Swinney: tough time as a party, I’m here to deal with difficulties. Bruce goes through SNP sleaze. He’s doing two things: rebuild trust in party and provide direction to change people’s lives.
• Question: Given recent scandals, how will you differ from predecessors?
• John Swinney up.
• Davey done.
• Question: How to address housing crisis? Bruce says funding is not mentioned in manifesto. Davey says £6 billion per year from borrowing. Community led approach. His wife is building council houses.
• Post Office: Why did you not meet with Alan Bates? Davey says scandal is worst in history. Two big mistakes Davey says he made: Not meeting with Bates, and believing Post Office when he went to them about it. Refuses to say if he is proud of his actions with regard to this. Gets onto protection for whistleblowers. Question: Should Vennells be prosecuted? Davey refuses to answer.
• Refuses to rule out coalition with Labour.
• Davey asked about northern seats and talks about West Country.
• Davey understands why generation lost trust. LibDems didn’t win everything. Davey lost his seat. He learnt that you shouldn’t promise what you can’t deliver. Please look at our manifesto and costings. Only very very wealthiest should pay more, and on capital gains. One of the most expensive taxes of all…
• Question: Tuition fees. How can student generation trust you? Big applause…
• Explains how LibDem GP policy works. Would take four years to train and retain.
• Davey: Election isn’t over. LibDems have great ideas. I am realistic about our chances. Our top priority is to defeat Tory MPs. It would be challenging to be PM seeing the polls.
• Question: Is your manifesto unrealistic because you won’t be elected?
• Davey: We don’t have resources, we’ll do it when resources allow. Two-child limit is wrong.
• Question: Someone broke into my church to feed their children. 30% of UK children are in need, could we not raise threshold of income tax?
• Davey: I take voter concerns seriously. Politicians should not take themselves too seriously. Serious messages are underneath, e.g. Windermere and sewage. Applause there…
• Question: Your media profile is horse-play – is that prime ministerial?
• Davey: easy choice would be to leave. We fought and prevented worse austerity.
• New question: We all remember tuition fees. You enabled austerity. Why believe you? To applause…
• Questioner: it isn’t a bottomless pit. Davey: we are responsible, we need to rescue NHS and fund schools, mental health provision especially.
• Davey: No, manifesto is costed. Large corporates should pay more, oil and gas giants. Bank tax. Social media tax. We can clamp down on tax avoidance more credibly by putting more cash into HMRC. More tax inspectors, what fun…
• First question: LibDems spending 5x Labour – are you bankrupting country?
• It’s a standing situation.
• Fiona introducing format.