The prime minister and the Labour Party leader have gone head-to-head for the second and final time ahead of the General Election next week.
The pair battled it out during a live Prime Ministerial Debate hosted by BBC’s Today presenter Nick Robinson on Friday night, in a bid to win final votes before the public goes to the polls on December 12.
An audience member put the question to the pair of how politicians should be punished if they are caught out lying, to which Mr
Johnson was asked to respond first.
The audience giggled before the PM said: ‘Well, they should be made to go on their knees down through the chamber of the House of Commons, scourging themselves with copies of their offending documents which claim to prove one thing and actually prove something quite different’.
Throughout the debate, Mr Corbyn received applause from the audience for attacking the PM over repeated claims that the NHS is on the table in US trade talks, to which Mr
Johnson mocked that soon ‘we are going to start seeing little green men’.
‘Labour will end privatisation in the NHS and return it to what it was always intended to be… a public health service,’ said Mr Corbyn.
He added: ‘President Trump has said many times people pay too little for US medicines around the world – that’s the kind of agenda the [Tories] want to get involved with’.
The PM retorted that the claims are ‘Bermuda Triangle stuff’, adding: ‘We believe in the NHS free at the point of use and under no circumstances would we sell it off to anybody.’
Mr Corbyn pointed out that his party introduced the NHS and that the Tories opposed its creation, to which Mr
Johnson laughed and said the Labour leader ‘likes going back to the 1940s’.
Answering a question from a student nurse about how he would deal with a shortage of nurses, Mr
Johnson said he would put in £34 billion more into the NHS and 50,000 more nurses, adding that he would ‘unpack that figure’ as people ‘complain about’ the widely disputed numbers.
He said: ‘But it means retaining the 19,000 who might otherwise drop out of the service and then recruiting another 31,000 new nurses.’
Mr
Johnson added: ‘What I think is totally incomprehensible is to have a system where you try to get more nurses and more staff into the NHS and simultaneously ask the whole of the public sector to work a four day week.’
Mr Corbyn said there are 43,000 nurse vacancies, pointing out that it was a Tory Government that cut the nurse bursary, and a Tory Lib Dem coalition that increased student fees.
The Labour leader said: ‘The Prime Minister, the day after he was appointed, announced there was going to be 40 new hospitals, a week later that became 20, a bit later on it became six new hospitals.
‘He seems to have a problem with the figures about hospital building in Britain.’
Mr
Johnson said he has a clear agenda to upgrade 20 hospitals and build 40 new hospitals.
Both parties were challenged over racism in their parties after an audience member raised concerns over Mr
Johnson’s past remarks which have been criticised as homophobic, Islamophobic and racist.
The presenter grilled Mr
Johnson over claims of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, saying his candidates had retweeted former EDL leader Tommy Robinson, with quotes about ‘Muslim paedophiles’.
Mr
Johnson said ‘all those candidates have either apologised or are now subject to investigation’, before attacking Mr Corbyn saying it was ‘extraordinary’ that a top religious leader such as Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis felt the need to protect his community.
The Labour leader insisted he has suspended or expelled members ‘where we have found them guilty of anti-Semitism in the party’ and that there is ‘absolutely no place for it whatsoever’.
After referring to Mr
Johnson’s past controversial journalism articles, Corbyn added: ‘I do not ever use racist language in any form to describe anybody in this world or in our society. We need a world where we treat people with respect.’
During the debate Mr Corbyn warned of ‘chaos’ and ‘huge job losses’ if a Tory government was unable to get a free trade deal with the EU by the end of the year.
But Mr
Johnson has insisted the Labour leader will be unable to push through a deal in just three months and criticised him of failing to take a strong position on Brexit.
He also warned that under a Labour government supported by the SNP the public will endure two referendums and would lead to ‘an economic disaster’.
Mr
Johnson added: ‘The burden of taxation always falls most heavily on modest and low incomes that’s what happen if Labour get in.’
Speaking of his withdrawal deal with the EU, Mr
Johnson said: ‘We have a fantastic deal it is there ready to go’.
Mr Robinson responds: ‘You don’t have a trade deal?’
But Mr
Johnson said his deal allows for businesses to have ‘perfect confidence’ going forward and there is ‘ample time’ to build a free trade partnership.
The pair clashed over the future relationship with Northern Ireland, with Mr Corbyn arguing that documents show there will be customs checks and charges between Northern Ireland which the PM denied.
Mr
Johnson repeated throughout the debate: ‘Let’s get Brexit done’.
Opening the debate after flipping a coin to choose who goes first, the Labour leader said voters need an ‘ambitious government on their side’.
He added: ‘Four million children live in poverty, people can’t get appointments to see their GP, elderly people can’t get the care they need and millions of families are struggling to pay bills and make ends meet.’
In his opening remarks, the PM urged voters to give the Tories a majority.
He added: ‘The only way to unleash the potential of this whole country is if we get a working majority Conservative government because the only possible alternative is another hung parliament.’
