'There's clearly bad blood between Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak': Andrew Pierce says Labour leader 'clearly hates' PM as he discusses the leaders' debate on the Mail's podcast The Reaction

There was 'clearly bad blood' between the Prime Minister and Keir Starmer in last night's TV debate, Andrew Pierce has told the Mail's talk show The Reaction.

Co-host Mr Pierce gathered the Labour leader 'hates' Rishi Sunak and 'can't stand him' from watching the leaders go head-to-head.

The PM took on the opposition leader in their first clash since the snap general election was called for July 4.

During the debate, the pair argued over key issues such as the economy, defence, NHS and migration in the biggest moment of the campaign so far.

Listen to The Reaction:

Mr Pierce and Sarah Vine told The Reaction their impressions from watching the clash. Mr Pierce said: 'I was looking at the body language. 

'Did you notice Starmer couldn't really look at Rishi? I mean, clearly he hates him. 

'There's clearly bad blood. Sometimes they get on quite well, but he clearly can't stand him, and couldn't look at him.

'But when Sunak was laying into him, he looked so pained.'

Ms Vine agreed and went on to say Sir Keir 'looked testy' like he was thinking "this is an annoying little man, why is he standing in the way to me being Prime Minister, which is obviously what I need be".'

'There was a kind of sense of a slight entitlement,' she added.

Ms Vine said Sir Keir seemed 'a little bit annoyed' that the PM was 'coming at him hard' in the debate and came across as 'uppity'.

He didn't respond in an 'efficient way', she said, and 'kept randomly mentioning' former Prime Minister Liz Truss but it didn't resonate with the viewers, co-host Andrew Pierce chimed in.

Continuing to eviscerate the Labour leader, the commentator said there was a clear difference in their 'mental agility'.

Mr Pierce said Sir Keir should be used to being adversarial from his time as a lawyer but it was Mr Sunak who always being on the attack, being 'agile and fast'.  

Ms Vine added: 'I think they do flush out weaknesses in these these leaders. I personally think that people do vote in general elections in terms of personality.'

During the crunch ITV debate, which was watched by an average of five million viewers, the two political leaders traded blows on the economy and the NHS and frequently shouted over each other.

Neither Mr Sunak nor Sir Keir appeared to land a knockout blow but a snap poll from YouGov suggested the PM performed marginally better, with 51 per cent making him the winner against 49 per cent for the Labour leader.