to, i don't debate as well as i used to, but i know what i do know, i know how to tell the truth. cheering. i know how to tell the truth. cheering-_ know how to tell the truth. cheering. ~ ., ., ., cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and — cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and i— cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and | know _ cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and | know how- cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and | know how to - cheering. i know right from wrong. cheering. and | know how to do - cheering. i know right from wrong. | cheering. and i know how to do this “ob. i know cheering. and i know how to do this job- i know how _ cheering. and i know how to do this job. i know how to _ cheering. and i know how to do this job. i know how to get _ cheering. and i know how to do this job. i know how to get things - cheering. and i know how to do this job. i know how to get things done. l job. i know how to get things done. and i know like millions of americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. cheering. let's speak to our north america correspondent nomia iqbal who's at that biden rally in north carolina. a defiant mood from president biden, he came out swinging.— he came out swinging. you'd be for: iven he came out swinging. you'd be forgiven for— he came out swinging. you'd be forgiven for asking _ he came out swinging. you'd be forgiven for asking who - he came out swinging. you'd be forgiven for asking who was - he came out swinging. you'd be | forgiven for asking who was that he came out swinging. you'd be - forgiven for asking who was that man on stage just forgiven for asking who was that man on stagejust a forgiven for asking who was that man on stage just a moment ago? this morning, the president would have woken up to a torrent of very bad and negative news headlines, basically saying it was over for him. and there is no doubt that will have been on his mind. when he came out onto stage, he did a lightjob, probably to show that he had some energy, and probably —— there is no doubt that the crowd really fired him up. there were 300 people here shouting every few minutes, four more years, let's go, joe, yes you can. and that, you could say, was firing him up. he was beaming, he was energetic and made it quite clear that he was going nowhere. he said, to quote, with my life and soul, i can do thisjob, the stakes are too high. so, outside of this auditorium and then around the country, as you mentioned there, there is this disquiet privately and publicly amongst democrats about president biden, but here he made it pretty clear he was going nowhere. and when i spoke to a few people afterwards, they were so happy, they said that he showed and proved that he can do this, and remember, north carolina is a key swing states that the president wants to win, he narrowly lost it to donald trump in 2020, and he's working hard to try and get it back. if wejudge it by the supporters here, i think the biden team will see this performance as a win. ., ~ ., as a win. fighting talk from president _ as a win. fighting talk from president biden _ as a win. fighting talk from president biden there, - as a win. fighting talk from - president biden there, president biden saying, i wouldn't be running again if i didn't believe i could do thisjob. but let's first take a bit of a closer look at the past 2a hours. his performance was described as meandering and at times confusing, and that's alarmed supporters and even prompted some calls for him to step aside as the democrat candidate. here's our north america editor sarah smith. this is a pivotal moment between president biden and former president donald trump. is this old man up to the job? america wanted to know. as soon as hoped his mouth the doubts began to grow. making sure we are able to make every single solitary personnel scribble for what i have been able to do with the, with the covid, excuse me with dealing with everything we have to do with... er, look, if... we finally beat medicare. he was hard to hear and sounded confused. this is him talking about immigration. the, the total initiative relative to what which can do with more border patrol and more asylum officers. president trump? i really don't know what he said at the end of that sentence, i don't know if he did either. one of the strongest issues should be abortion but he couldn't score on that. there are so many young women, including a young woman who was murdered and he went to the funeral, the idea she was murdered by an immigrant coming in. why, after a week of intense preparation did he not have a great answer ready on what is a winning issue for democrats? immediately afterwards, the senior democrats who were sent out to talk to the press did not have any convincing excuses for that disastrous performance. yes, the president may have had a minor cold, yes, maybe his voice was scratchy. is that the best he can do, is that what voters can expect? voters see him every day, let us not forget, it is stewpot like voters are seeing president biden today. that is why he had to reassure him. that is why he had to reassure them. they see him at campaign events and rallies. donald trump's performance was riddled with dozens of lies. the problem they have is they are radical, they will take the life of a child in the eighth month and ninth month and even after the birth. we are the greatest economy in the history of our country, we have never done so well, everybody was amazed by it, other countries were copying us, we have the largest deficit in the history of our country under this guy. none of that is true. joe biden did land some punch, one on donald trump's behaviour towards women. how many billions of dollars do you owe for molesting a woman in public, for doing a whole range of thing, having sex with a porn star on the night while your wife was pregnant? i mean, what are you talking about? you have the morals of an alley cat. i didn't have sex with a porn star, number one. president biden described visiting a world war i cemetery in france that donald trump refused to enter. he was standing with his four star general and he told me, i don't want to go in there because i think that are a bunch of losers and suckers. you're the loser. president trump? first of all that was a made up quote. suckers and losers they made it up. inside this huge press scrum are two democratic rising stars. and we all want to know, if either of them might now step in and take over as their party's candidate. we nominatejoe biden and we look forward to voting for him in november. whatever excuses democrats come up with everybody knowsjoe biden had onejob tonight, to convince the nation he is not too old and he failed that test. speculation about whether the democrats should replace him as their candidate, that is not going to help his position and remember, he's the one who demanded this debate. later, the first lady tried to convince people it had all gone very well. joe, you did such a greatjob, you answered every question, you knew all the facts. it's hard to know if she was trying to reassure her husband or gnawing ——it�*s hard to know if she was trying to reassure her but she seemed to perk him up. i can't think of one thing he said that was true. i am not being facetious, we are going to beat this guy, we need to beat this guy. and i need you in order to beat him. if this guy had showed up to the debate, the headlines might not be quite so dire this morning. last night, one candidate's performance sent his party scrambling. many are calling it a disaster for the president. it was the worst debate performance in modern political history. joe biden's campaign is already moving on, he is determined to continue. but fears over his fitness and if it could be fatal to his chances of re—election cannot be left behind. sarah smith, bbc news atlanta georgia. sarah smith with all the drama, and as well as the drama, you can have the analysis on our live page. go to our website or our app for all the updates about that debate between biden and trump and also the reaction amongst democrats and others. and now, from one election to another. rishi sunak has condemned the use of a racist term against him by a reform uk campaigner. mr sunak, who is of indian origin, repeated the words deliberately, saying he had to call out clearly language which made him hurt and angry. he also said the party's leader, nigel farage, had questions to answer. the comments were secretly filmed and broadcast by channel 4 while activists were campaigning for reform uk in clacton, where mr farage is standing. nigel farage claimed the racist comments were a set—up. a warning this report byjoe pike contains language widely considered to be offensive. please welcome nigel farage. applause. he's attempting a fightback after yet more accusations of racism within reform. this whole thing is a complete and total setup. but this time it's not nigel farage's candidates, but his campaigners. 0ne, seeing a pride flag on a police car, compared gay people to paedophiles. another suggested the army should shoot illegal immigrants with. and he used a racist slur to describe rishi sunak. andrew parker said he'd not told nigel farage about his views, and apologised if he'd brought reform into disrepute. when my two daughters have to see and hear reform people who campaign for nigel farage calling me an effing bleep, it hurts and it makes me angry. and i think he has some questions to answer. and i don't repeat those words lightly. you know, i do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is. after he left loose women, we caught up with the reform leader. hi, nigel. how are you doing? why do racists seem to be attracted to your party? all political parties do. one of the problems, of course, is that i single—handedly destroyed the bnp. so you're going to find some people who don't have a home to go to, who come to us. and do you know something? when we find out who they are, we simply get rid of them. and mr farage seemed keen to focus on one of the campaigners, who he claims was acting. from the moment he arrived in the office at clacton last saturday, and he bowled up and spoke to me, he was rough speaking. you think he was faking it? he was acting from the moment he came into the office. i100% believe this whole thing is a total setup. andrew parker has not returned our calls. he has done some acting in the past, but we found no evidence he was acting in the covert recording. channel 4 news have said... whatever nigel farage and his team claim about a setup, they know the revelations of the past 2a hours have the potential to distract from and even damage their campaign at precisely the moment when many floating voters are finally making up their minds. he's just got too much to say, and a lot of it isjust nonsense, i think. i was very impressed. would you vote for him? maybe. nigel farage's next attempt at persuading voters is tonight's question time leaders' special. joe pike, bbc news, west london. you can see a full list of all the candidates standing in the clacton constituency, and it's also on the bbc news website. well, after the channel 4 investigation into reform uk, eyes will be on nigel farage when he takes part in a question time leaders special which also features green party co—leader adrian ramsay in birmingham. let's speak to our political correspondent hannah miller, who's in the spin room. hannah, ican hannah, i can imagine that a lot of scrutiny on nigel farage, what is the midway you are?— scrutiny on nigel farage, what is the midway you are? welcome to the sin room the midway you are? welcome to the spin room in — the midway you are? welcome to the spin room in birmingham. _ the midway you are? welcome to the spin room in birmingham. we - the midway you are? welcome to the spin room in birmingham. we have i spin room in birmingham. we have seen quite a few of these in recent weeks, haven't we, where generous and representatives from the party gathered to tell us what they think of the debate and arguments made by their leaders. there isjust under an hour to go now before this question time special gets under way. it will be adrian ramsay of the green party up first, taking questions from the audience for about half an hour or so, followed by nigel farage from reform, all eyes on him after the revelations of the last 24—hour is or so. i think we have clearly some sense of what nigel farage is likely to say in response to all of that, but what will be really interesting is to see how the audience respond. it is often the audience reactions that can be quite telling and can provide the real moments and big television events like this. also, really worth saying that the two people on stage tonight can be more opposed in their vertical views. they are completely different policies, whether that is on climate change, immigration, taxation, they have completely different policies, and they are tying to take votes from different parties, the greens hoping to take seats from the labour party, to have influence over a potential labour government, reform trying to pick up votes from the conservatives and influence the future direction of the conservative party. neither of the conservative party. neither of the two people on stage tonight are about to become the next prime minister but it is a big opportunity for them to make their case heard. i was going to ask you that, hannah, because why is it so important for these leaders that they are not going to wake up on the 5th ofjuly as prime minister, for the green party, is it for name recognition and to get adrian ramsay out there? absolutely, yes. and i think one thing that a lot of people don't realise with these things is that as long as each of these parties does actually get one mp, then make become entitled to something called short money, which is money to support the operations in parliament and that is partly related to the number mps you get but it is also related to the number of votes that the party gets so it might be that there are people watching this thinking that reform your tray or the green party are not lightly to win their seats, but it is still the case that if you were to buy it for them and they get ip —— one mp somewhere, the party would get some money, £40 for two votes, up to a certain limit, so it might be that the two people on stage tonight are not about to form the next government become an x prime minister but i can still have influence, and that is something that the smaller parties certainly want in our democracy going forward. yes, indeed. isaw want in our democracy going forward. yes, indeed. i saw a want in our democracy going forward. yes, indeed. isaw a poll that want in our democracy going forward. yes, indeed. i saw a poll that said 94% of voters could not identify who adrian ramsay is so i am sure he will be aiming to get his name and face out there. hannah, thank you very much indeed. the liberal democrat leader, sir ed davey, has defended his role in the conservative—led coalition government and its approach to austerity in a bbc interview to be broadcast later tonight. he was a cabinet minister under david cameron, and ditched the liberal democrat manifesto pledge to curb student tuition fees. he said it was important to be part of the team making decisions for the country. i am not proud of every decision i had to take but my point is if you wanted to change things, you had to roll up your sleeves and not quit. and we stood there, and we sat there, and we argued our case. and i'm really proud of things we achieved. we wouldn't have quadrupuled renewable power if the liberal democrats hadn't been there, we wouldn't have made britain the world leader in offshore wind, we wouldn't have legislated on mental health, we wouldn't have legislated on same sex marriage. you can see the full interview with sir ed davey on bbc one and on bbc iplayer and here on bbc news from 7.30 this evening. that is nick robinson's last interview with the leader of a major party before the election. let's speak to our correspondent tom symonds who has been travelling with the liberal democrats campaign team today. he is injohn 0'groats village in the very north of scotland. tom, the policies the liberal democrats today, lowering they cache vat on children's toothbrushes and toothpaste, trying to put health at the centre of the policies. yes. toothpaste, trying to put health at the centre of the policies. yes, we are at the — the centre of the policies. yes, we are at the most _ the centre of the policies. yes, we are at the most northerly - the centre of the policies. yes, we are at the most northerly point - the centre of the policies. yes, we are at the most northerly point in l are at the most northerly point in the mainland of the uk, just to give you a sign that land's the mainland of the uk, just to give you a sign that lands end is 800 is only four miles away from us and new york 3230 miles away from us. why are we here? well, ed davey is on his way here, he is half an hour away, we have managed to get here before him. he has come from another eventin before him. he has come from another event in cambridge where he talked about the importance of children being able to get access to good dental health care, good dental hygiene, by brushing their teeth. he is going to cut vat, if he was prime minister, on children's toothpaste and toothbrushes. he has come here because he is going to do a road trip from john 0'groats in the north of scotland to the other end of the country. i am allowed at the moment to tell you exactly where he is going to go, we have agreed to an embargo which means we are not allowed to say at this stage but he is going to visit a number of constituents that are —— constituencies that are important to the liberal democrats, in the conservative heartlands in the south, also lots of seats here in scotland, this big constituents here on the north—eastern tip of scotland is currently held by the liberal democrats and clearly ed davey is going to come here to make sure that he keeps it in the election when we get to it. and he is going to be talking about all sorts of policies as we go, and i think, knowing ed davey, having spent some time on the liberal democrat bus, i think he will have a cunning plan to carry out a number of stunts because his priority is getting the liberal democrats known by the electorate, not a party that is likely to take power when we go to the polls, one that he hopes will have some influence in the parliament to come. the liberal democrats have, you know, a dozen or so seats at the moment, and she hopes to perhaps make that as many as 50 seats when the vote finally happens. i make that as many as 50 seats when the vote finally happens.— the vote finally happens. i wonder if he will be _ the vote finally happens. i wonder if he will be trying _ the vote finally happens. i wonder if he will be trying to _ the vote finally happens. i wonder if he will be trying to paddle - if he will be trying to paddle boarding behind you, tom. iwonder also, with the conservatives are really suffering in the polls, and this new fresh trouble for reform, the liberal democrats must be basking in the moment, trying to, as some polls suggest, become an official position.— official position. that is a possibility- _ official position. that is a possibility. if— official position. that is a possibility. if you - official position. that is a possibility. if you took i official position. that is a | possibility. if you took the official position. that is a - possibility. if you took the top end of the poll range for the liberal democrats and compare it with a bottom end for