ANKARA
The leaders of seven British political parties will take part in a live TV election debate Thursday as they try to win over undecided voters, who make up 40 percent of the electorate.
Those taking part are:
David Cameron, the current British prime minister and leader of the center-right Conservative Party, which is the senior partner of the coalition that has governed the U.K. since the 2010 general election ended in a hung parliament;
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats Party, the junior party of the ruling coalition;
Ed Miliband, the leader of the center-left main opposition Labour Party;
Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party, or UKIP, who campaign for the U.K. to exit the EU;
Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the left-wing separatist Scottish National Party, or SNP, who campaign for Scottish independence from the U.K.;
Natalie Bennett, the leader of the left-wing environmentalist Green Party;
Leanne Wood, the leader of the left-wing Welsh separatist Plaid Cymru Party, who campaign for Welsh independence from the U.K.
Meanwhile, the Northern Irish center-right unionist Democratic Unionist Party has harshly criticized its exclusion from the debate.
- TV election debate schedule
Thursday’s two-hour debate will be the second of four scheduled TV election debates.
It will be broadcast live on the public ITV channel in front of a 200-strong audience at 2000 GMT and will be moderated by ITV news presenter Julie Etchingham.
The last debate took place on March 26, when David Cameron and Ed Miliband took part in separate, successive interviews and town-hall style debates.
Labour, the SNP, UKIP, the Greens and Plaid Cymru will all take part in the third TV debate on April 16, which will take place on the BBC and will be moderated by veteran presenter David Dimbleby.
The final debate will take place on April 20 between the leaders of the three main parties: Cameron, Clegg and Miliband.
It will take the form of a special edition of the BBC’s flagship Question Time program and will also be chaired by Dimbleby.
The U.K. general election will take place on May 7, 2015.
