to take part was unexpected — he made that call at lunchtime — challenging theresa may tojoin him. the prime minister — visiting the west country today — said she preferred to be meeting voters on the campaign trail. and that she would stick to her guns and not take part in that cambridge debate this evening. the audience are now taking their seats — ready to ask their questions and weigh up the answers. caroline lucas from the green party there and we have just seen leanne wood from plaid cymru. these are live pictures now ofjeremy corbyn the labour leader. a lot of applause. as the labour leader arrives in cambridge. and he waves to quite a large crowd of supporters clutching labour party banners on this sunny evening in cambridge. and this sunny evening in cambridge. and this decision from jeremy corbyn very interesting, he had said he would not take part in the debate if theresa may was not taking part but had a change of mind. alongside his communications chief seamus milne. walking towards the spectacular, sumptuous venue walking towards the spectacular, sumptuous venue for this 2017 election debate. so jeremy sumptuous venue for this 2017 election debate. sojeremy corbyn against all expectations, a last—minute decision that he would ta ke last—minute decision that he would take part after all and are throwing down the gauntlet as he did to theresa may demanding that she would also change your mind and take part in the debate. but she is insisting that she will not. she would rather be out and about on the stump meeting voters, she said. jeremy corbyn is there. the debate itself under way in about 25 minutes. with just over a week to go until polling day, senior figures from the seven main parties will take questions from the audience. the bbc‘s mishal husain will moderate the debate. labour leaderjeremy corbyn is taking part but the prime minister theresa may will not be here at the debate. she has said she's busy meeting voters are also working on brexit. sojeremy voters are also working on brexit. so jeremy corbyn voters are also working on brexit. sojeremy corbyn has been speaking to voters in cambridge and said that a labour government would make a more cohesive society and he urged the prime minister to take part in the prime minister to take part in the cambridge debate. what kind of society do you want to live in, are you comfortable that every night there are thousands of people sleeping on our streets and begging around railway stations. are you comfortable that there is such grotesque levels of inequality in oui’ grotesque levels of inequality in our society and getting worse, or do you want to elect a government that will do something different with the support of the people. which will develop the health, housing, education and provide opportunities for all. all across the spectrum. so that we have a more cohesive and coherent society in the future. and for all the cynical commentators, you know what is happening everywhere i go all over the country, the rallies are getting bigger, the crowds and enthusiasm and determination gets bigger. and that gives us a chance to do something very special on june that gives us a chance to do something very special onjune the 8th. it is very odd that you have an election campaign where we go out and talk to people all the time and the prime minister seems to have difficulty in meeting anyone or having a debate. so there is a debate in cambridge tonight, i do not know know what she's doing this evening but i invite her to go to cambridge and debate policies, debate her record, debate their plans. and let the public make up their minds. jeremy corbyn earlier in the day throwing down the gau ntlet in the day throwing down the ga u ntlet to in the day throwing down the gauntlet to theresa may. we have seen home secretary amber rudd who was representing the conservative party arriving in cambridge. the prime minister is not taking part in the debate, she has defended her sta nce the debate, she has defended her stance not to be part of the general election debate and she has said she has been taking questions up and down the country instead. laura kuenssberg has been speaking to the prime minister today and pushed her on why she was not taking part in the debate. what i have done in terms of our manifesto is to be open with the british people about the challenges that we face as the country over the next few years and beyond. and how we will address those challenges. you talk about the brexit negotiations, i have set out clearly what the 12 objectives are for those negotiations. i believe thatis for those negotiations. i believe that is the right thing to do. as we go into those negotiations which begin just 11 days after election day the question people must ask themselves is who do they want to see fighting for the uk in those negotiations, who they want to see taking the country forward, building a more prosperous britain for the future. people also have questions about the practical things that you would actually do if re—elected. can you tell us now how would the immigration system work after brexit, who would lose their winter fuel allowance, who where would you set the caparo social care. because if you do not there the sense that you're using these slogans and again but trying to hide behind that and not telling people what you would actually do. let's look at the issue such as winter fuel payments and social care. we have been very clear with people and open about them about that we face the pressures of an ageing society and in just ten yea rs an ageing society and in just ten years there will be 2 million more people aged over 75 in the country. if we do not do something about the social care system it will collapse. so we propose a system where people can protect more of their savings to pass onto their children and will not happen to sell their home in their lifetime to pay for their care bills. and there will be a cap on the absolute level of funding they have to pay. but if you keep repeating broad principles but do not give details, people will be worried that millions may lose their winter fuel allowance or the cap on social care might be set at an extremely high level. people want more from because basically you're saying on many of these big issues, i will get back to you. what i'm saying is i will listen to you and i think that is important. you can approach this in one of two ways. i have set out the broad principles of oui’ have set out the broad principles of our policy, have shown how we will provide a sustainable long—term social care system for this country which we need because the system will collapse unless we do something 110w. will collapse unless we do something now. what i also saying is i want to listen to people about where that cap should be put up about where we should means test winter fuel payments. listen to the voters and organisations, charities and others working with older people, consult with them. i think that is the open thing for government to do. that was the prime minister earlier. explaining why she is not wanting to ta ke explaining why she is not wanting to take part in the cambridge tv debate this evening amongst other things. but in her place is home secretary amber rudd who arrived just a few minutes ago. stepping out of the car there. a few boos from what looks like a crowd of labour supporters. they certainly gave jeremy corbyn quite a warm welcome when he arrived just before amber rudd. we have also seen just before amber rudd. we have also seen tim farron the liberal democrat leader arriving for the debate. and we had leanne wood from plaid cymru and also caroline lucas from the green party arriving. so all in place. but the prime minister herself is not there because she says she would rather be out and about meeting voters. clive is in the spin room where everything will be digested and poured over a little bit later. it will indeed. it is now beginning to fill up. i have been here for the last couple of hours and now the journalists and pundits, the analysts are all here and really your understanding of what happens this evening in the debate on the front pages of the newspapers tomorrow, on radio and television, much of that will be framed in this very room and also some of the politicians from the seven parties taking part tonight, they are also here trying to influence some of the copy that the journalists are going to file. so it will be an interesting place to observe the debate from here in the cambridge union building. just down the road is our political correspondent vicki young to die just a lot of this. first of all, theresa may, her decision not to turn up. —— by jesting a lot of this. if you go back to win the election was called she was seen as being the front runner. the poll suggested she was ahead and had everything to lose and that partly is what is at the bottom of that kind of decision. why come here to be attacked from all sides. forjeremy corbyn, deciding to join at the last minute, that has changed that. david cameron last time chose not to take part in one of these debates and the difference then was there was no conservative representative. so slightly strange debate because everyone ganged up pretty much on ed miliband. but this time home secretary amber rudd will be there to the record of government so be there to the record of government so make it slightly easier for jeremy corbyn. the more he has gone out there, the more relaxed jeremy corbyn has been. he had some hiccups of course forgetting some figures but generally has looked more at home in these television debates perhaps than theresa may. we will have to see how he performs tonight. we have every party represented so i think it will be a better debate for that. and probably one of the biggest we are going to have. what about parties like plaid cymru and the green party, how important is it for them given the national stage that they will have tonight, to put ona that they will have tonight, to put on a good show? it is important and last time around we had leanne wood from plaid cymru who would not have been widely known, and people really liked her when she went on the platform. so it is important to them because they know they cannot be prime minister but they need to get that stage on ram slam television to get across their case. i think leanne wood is the only surviving person from the last, from two years ago. the line—up has changed com pletely ago. the line—up has changed completely which shows you what has happened to british politics. tim farron has not done one of these before in this way and for the liberal democrats, many people talking about a resurgence for the lib dems. today i was in the west country with the prime minister and the tories do not think there is much sign of the lib dems coming back there. this is a chance for tim farron who again is not that well known to people because they lost so many mps last time around. a chance for him to get across his message. he will be talking about brexit and fighting the referendum result. we saw how will nick clegg dig back in 2010 and how this kind of setting can give someone 2010 and how this kind of setting can give someone from a smaller party a bit of a lift. and i think also for paul nuttall, ukip have not been having a very successful election campaign. lots of polling evidence but also the local election results seeming to show that they we re results seeming to show that they were pretty much in freefall. not standing in many of their previous seats. this is his chance to come out from under the shadow of nigel farage. nigel farage such a big figure and he has not really managed to break out and make his name. but i think nowjeremy corbyn is coming at the last minute, all eyes will be on him and whether he can perform tonight and get across the message tonight and get across the message toa tonight and get across the message to a wider audience. many thanks. just 15 minutes to go before the debate begin. we can show you some pictures. this is how the set for the seven—way debate was created. remember thatjeremy corbyn decided only today that he was going to turn up. the shadow foreign secretary emily thornbury was actually going to be there in his place butjeremy corbyn decided to turn up. we will bring you the debate in full. at 7:30pm. with extra on screen graphics on the news channel showing the latest reaction from the bbc reality check team who will be fact—checking in real time. they will put graphics on the screen so you can keep a sense of what exactly is going on. let's speak to the culture secretary karen bradley. the only place to start really with the conservatives is the absence of theresa may. does that make sense to you? theresa theresa may. does that make sense to you ? theresa may theresa may. does that make sense to you? theresa may set out her plan for how to run the selection and work in this election, getting up and down the country to meet the voters. she has been clear about that. she has travelled thousands of miles and attended over 60 events. she has taken questions from more members of the public and the press than corbyn. it has takenjeremy corbyn six weeks to decide to come today. but what it means is the public are going to see for the first time what a coalition of chaos looks like when we seejeremy corbyn up looks like when we seejeremy corbyn up on stage with those people who will be propping him up if there is a hung parliament. in eight days this is the reality of what the government could look like going into those brexit negotiations. we are only missing diane abbott and john mcdonnell. the implication for many people is that theresa may is not willing to defend not only her record but her manifesto in public with jeremy corbyn. that is not the case, she was on a couple of days ago and will be on again on tv in another couple of days. she has been answering questions from members of the public, more than twice the number of questions thatjeremy corbyn has taken. he has been in organised rallies but she has been with ordinary working voters. it has taken him six weeks to decide to come to this debate tonight and in 11 days after the general election we are going to be going into brexit negotiations. do we want someone there who take six weeks to make up its mind whether or not to come to a debate. are people within the conservative party experiencing some jitters because the polls have changed and there is the sense that perhaps the party is losing traction. going into the country at asking the country as a general election, nothing is guaranteed and the polls get things wrong. they got the polls get things wrong. they got the brexit referendum result wrong and jeremy corbyn was a 200 outsider and jeremy corbyn was a 200 outsider and became labour leader so no one has ever relied on the polls. but it brings home the reality that the conservatives lose 60 and the coalition chaos you will see tonight by the people who will be leading brexit negotiations withjeremy corbyn at the helm. the room is filling up with journalists and pundits. they will put their own gloss on the debate which begins in just ten minutes. we will have a chat with some of our other guests. with me is the lib dem's brian paddick. how important is it tonight for the liberal democrats? many people will not have seen tim farron before and they're going to see a genuine guy who is passionate about these issues, because he is not from a privileged background. he is going to stand up to the dementia tax from the conservatives, to the cuts in school budgets and the nhs. the fact is you're starting from a very low base, you have a handful of mps and do you believe that you can turn this situation around ? do you believe that you can turn this situation around? the polls are all over the place, overnight we had one poll showing it is going to be a hung parliament and another showing a 100 majority to the conservatives. the thing is targeting our efforts in key constituencies and by doing that we think we can make considerable gains. the suggestion was there might be a liberal democrat resurgence. particularly if you took the policy that you would try to offer as part of your ma nifesto a try to offer as part of your manifesto a second referendum vote on the eu on the deal that comes back from brussels. that does not seem back from brussels. that does not seem to have happened. what we're saying is we should not leave the decision once we know what the details are, to theresa may, paul nuttall and jeremy corbyn. we should actually give that decision to the people. and whether people voted to remain or to leave, they will have the decision once we know what the details are. and we think once people get the message, because many people get the message, because many people still have not heard that message, tim gets the message across today and we think that that will have an effect. and the south west in particular where perhaps you hope to make inroads in the local elections, that did not happen either. the difficulty with the south west is that it voted predominantly to leave. and therefore the initial impact of that message is not working, has not worked in the south—west. but when people realised that we're not saying you cannot decide at the end of the day, the people cannot decide, at the end of the day. thank you very much. and shannon merry from the queen city. this kind of exposure is crucial for a small party like your party? caroline lucas is one of the most credible politicians and incredibly hard—working. what we will see tonight from their will prove to people but we need more mps from the wing party in parliament. many people will be deciding to vote green tonight. and the idea of the progressive alliance, has that taken root in the country? not amongst the party leaders we have reached out to but i think there is a grassroots movement. people looking at where they can make their vote make a difference and focus their campaigning efforts on areas where there are marginals where we could change the result on day. we have been influential pushing the idea of working together in a more cooperative way. i hope that that will carry on in opposition. why do you think it has not taken off in the way you hoped? on the grassroots i think it has. looking at the number of people signed up and looking at the various tactical voting websites. and the idea that politics needs to get a bit more grown—up. it should not be about childish arguments we have seen in the brexit debate. people want to get into the details of this and discuss policy in a much more mature way and have the parties working together where they can. i think that idea is going to carry on for many years to come. let's turn out to ukip. paul, you are starting from a low base and have no mps whatsoever now. what does pull marvel have to do? what he has been doing, talking about the issues facing the majority of people in the country. we may not have any mps but this whole election which has been framed by theresa may around brexit is asa framed by theresa may around brexit is as a result of the victory won last year by ukip in the referendum. you could have demonstrated more than any other party, we have challenged the political establishment and changed the political direction of this country. we will keep talking about the issues that resonate with voters across the country and we look forward to doing that. we saw what happened with the stoke election, not performing perhaps as well as the party hope, why do you think that the message is not getting across? i think paul performed well in stoke but the problem was the expectation was set incredibly low by the labour party. i hear they're already talking about a jeremy corbyn victory just already talking about a jeremy corbyn victoryjust by dint of the fa ct corbyn victoryjust by dint of the fact that he is turning up. so we performed as well as we expected to. but we still increased on our vote share from where we were in 2015. something to take some excitement from. we will keep doing that across the country and i'm sure we will have some interesting results. now plaid cymru, thank you for being with us. this is an important stage for you because you can get out your message to a national audience. absolutely and the only reason you're asking about wales tonight is because plaid cymru is here. and it is up to the people of wales to decide where they want to be after this campaign is over. so we need to elect a strong plaid cymru to ensure that wales is going to be on the uk agenda into the future. leanne wood has made a great impression in previous television debates. her sincerity shines through and that is something that people will see across the uk. what do you think the perception is going to be of theresa may not turning up?” perception is going to be of theresa may not turning up? i think it is quite cynicalfor the may not turning up? i think it is quite cynical for the party leaders to use this debate for their own means tonight. theresa may called the election but does not want to be held accountable for her policies. and jeremy corbyn changing his mind at the last minute, trying to make political capital. people want politicians to be upfront and turn up politicians to be upfront and turn up and allow themselves to be scrutinised. and leanne wood is standing upfor scrutinised. and leanne wood is standing up for welsh interests. thank you all. sam coates, deputy political editor of the times and george eaton, political editor of the news statesman. what you expect tonight? jeremy corbyn, that is the big surprise. a lot will ride on that. the dynamics will be slightly awkward. because theresa may is not there. a lot of the debate will be taken up by criticising her decision not to fightjeremy corbyn and turn up tonight. does that make a difference, i'm not so sure. really whether or notjeremy corbyn can shine against his opponents, those on the left and the ride, and whether he can continue to perform well in the media. one feature of this election has been the way that many smaller parties have seen their vote really disappear and all go to the labour party if they were left—leaning orchard to the conservatives for ukip. so there is a danger of a jeremy corbyn that by appearing alongside them and giving them a platform, he may not perform as well or see some of those votes backfire. so there is a risk free him and the conservatives will try to present this as a coalition of chaos that would need to propel jeremy corbyn into downing street. george, what about the smaller parties, how important is this for them? very important because what we've seen recently is the dominance of the main parties. there was talk of the main parties. there was talk ofan end of the main parties. there was talk of an end to the 2—party system. so the lib dems had a bad campaign and they need to break through tonight. you can expect to see them try to tiejeremy corbyn to the tories and ukip by saying that he backs brexit. the greens also take an anti—brexit stands and you can expect ukip to try to hammerjeremy corbyn on immigration. labour have said they would go along with the end of free movement but not how much they would like to reduce immigration by or how they would achieve that goal. thank you. i should tell you that we are going to have live graphics shown on the bbc news channel coverage of the debate tonight. and also we will have our reality check team checking all the information and the facts and figures that are given by the panellists. that will be an added dimension to the bbc news channel coverage. but all starts in about 45 seconds or so about the senate house. this of course is the spin room. all the debate and analysis and all the reaction we will bring to you after the debate and around nine o'clock. so coming up, the most important perhaps some would say and certainly the largest debate in this campaign with just under seven days, eight days to go before polling day onjune eight days to go before polling day on june the 8th. eight days to go before polling day onjune the 8th. here now is the bbc election debate life with mishal hussain. to make their pitch to our audience here, and to you at home. welcome to the bbc election debate 2017. applause good evening and welcome to senate house at the university

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