General Election 2019: Have people made up their minds?

If you were watching our programmes last week you may have seen our series of reports about the 'West Country Battlegrounds'.

We've taken a look at ten seats across the region that are either our most marginal, or ones that certain parties are throwing their resources at.

The seats are Bath, Camborne & Redruth, Cheltenham, North Devon, Plymouth Sutton & Devonport, South Swindon, St Ives, Stroud, Totnes and Wells.

Two things have struck me over the last two weeks as I have travelled through the West Country talking to voters and campaigners.

  • Despite may voters admitting that they're fed up of the current political situation, they are engaged with politics and not just on Brexit.

  • So many people haven't made up their minds yet.

It's the second point that is unnerving candidates, especially in more unpredictable seats, because they can't work out as confidently as normal how well their campaigns are going.

Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will debate head-to-head on ITV.

Tonight on ITV the debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn could well prove a key moment in making up some people's minds.

Of course before Parliament was dissolved the pair would go head to head across the dispatch box on a Wednesday at Prime Minister's Questions, however that has only happened a handful of times since Boris Johnson became PM.

Standing just metres apart and unable to avoid each other, tonight the two men will debate for an hour with Brexit expected to dominate half of the debate.

Viewers will have the opportunity to directly compare the two potential Prime Minsters, whilst they will be doing all they can not to make any mistakes and show themselves as the better statesman.

It is clear that Boris Johnson will want to keep talking about Brexit hoping that Leave voters will prefer his option of a Brexit deal rather than Jeremy Corbyn's plan to negotiate a new deal and then have a referendum on it.

Last night (Nov 18) Mr Johnson wrote to the Labour leader asking him to clarify his opinion on Brexit. The tactic of suggesting that under Labour there will only be 'dither and delay' on Brexit.

In response Jeremy Cornbyn is likely to promise to sort Brexit in six months and regularly criticise a trade deal with America, by constantly suggesting that means parts of the NHS will be sold off to US companies.

The other parties will then have their own chance to answer back to the main topics of the head to head debate at 10pm in an interview programme also on ITV.