David Cameron will take the coveted centre stage spot in the first live TV election debate, it emerged today.
The Standard has learned that the Tory leader will appear between
Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg for the historic, 90-minute confrontation on ITV1 tomorrow night.
As each of the party leaders suspended their campaigning to prepare for the debate, it was also revealed that an instant opinion poll will declare a "winner" within minutes of the programme ending.
The telephone survey by ComRes\ITV will give an immediate, US-style verdict on how the public felt the three leaders had performed. A poll "worm", showing the peaks and troughs of support through the debate, will be aired afterwards too.
Mr Clegg will appear on the left of the stage and Mr Brown on the right, as the viewer sees it. The positioning of the three leaders, as well as the format for the shows, has been part of intense negotiations between broadcasters and the parties in recent weeks.
When Vince Cable appeared centre stage in the Chancellor's Debates on Channel 4 recently, a programme widely seen as a dry-run for the main event, he was allowed to appear as an arbiter between the rowing Alistair Darling and George Osborne.
For Mr Cameron, the danger of getting the centre spot is that he runs the "piggy-in-the-middle" risk that his rivals will gang up on him. But party insiders are delighted that he has the first chance to appear centre-stage as it will allow him to look as if he is in charge.
Mr Clegg is understood to have been given the central spot for the second debate next week. With the polls showing that a large section of voters are still undecided about the election, the televised debates are being seen as crucial for each of the main players.
A recent opinion poll suggested that more than half of the population will tune in for the shows, which take place on the next three Thursday nights.
Although all TV channels are banned under the debate rules from running live verdicts on the three leaders during the programme, Twitter and Facebook are expected to have huge online audiences covering the event in real time. Spin doctors and MPs will seek to expose gaffes and "direct hits" in live weblogs too.
All of the parties have been pouring time and resources into preparations for the programmes, and tonight Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg are expected to be in Manchester ready for the first debate that starts at 8.30pm.
Read More
Lord Mandelson revealed today that his advice to Mr Brown was: "Be yourself, be clear, be straight with people. Don't compete with Mr Cameron's personal insults." Mr Cameron tried to lower expectations of his performance.
He said: "I cannot pretend that I'm not nervous." He added that he was worried the TV format was too "sluggish" with only eight questions in an hour.
