A septet of politicians for 90 minutes on a Friday night. I grant you it's not traditional weekend entertainment, but then again, there is an election on. Lots discussed and debated. We'll bring you the highlights on the program tonight. A keen reminder, too, that, yes, there's lots of focus in this campaign on the race to be Prime Minister, but there is a smorgas board of options that voters will have in front of them, depending on where you are around the UK, and a cacophony of voices. We got a real sense of that this evening here on BBC One. Oh, and all seven of them had rather a lot to say about the big story of the day. When this music gets an outing, you know polling day is getting close. And within minutes of tonight's debate beginning, today's row was center stage.

What happened was completely wrong, and the Prime Minister has rightly apologized for that. Thank you to all those that have served in our armed forces and continue to do so in what is a very insecure world at the moment.

A Prime Minister who puts his own political career before public service is no Prime Minister at all.

It was not only politically shameful, but I think many of us feel personally quite insulted. We all owe a huge debt to our veterans, those from D-day and those from conflicts since. I think was a complete and utter disgrace and shows us we actually have a very unpatriotic Prime Minister. It was dreadful. I think what we saw from the Prime Minister was panic, and I think it's the same pre-election panic that gave us It's the best backup of a fag packet plan for a new national service.

From this evening to this morning. Here we are. Rishi Sunak arrives as a nursery in Swindon. It's a new low point for you, Prime Minister. Apologizing to the veterans. I thought I'd turn up too. Who's advising you, Prime Minister? Inside, playing in the sandpit and gentle chat with the nippers. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? But sharp questions from the reporters.

You left early. What are you thinking?

Over the past two days, I've participated in a number of events in Portsmouth and France to honor those who risked their lives to defend our freedom and our values 80 years ago. The itinerary for these events was set weeks ago, before the start of the general election campaign. Having participated in all the British events with British veterans, I returned home before the international leaders event later in the day. On reflection, that was a mistake, and I apologize. But I'm someone who will always admit when I've made a mistake, that's what you'll always get from me.

I have to say, Prime Minister, you sound more exasperated than apologetic. These men made the ultimate sacrifice, and you couldn't even sacrifice a whole afternoon. Ken Hay, a 98-year-old D-day veteran told us that you let the country down.

Is he right?

I participated in events both in Portsmouth and in France over two days because this is an incredibly important moment for our country to commemorate the sacrifice of all of those and their service.

Leaders on the campaign trail hate having to spend time trying to explain away what happened yesterday. That is precisely what the Prime Minister is having to do today. The Prime Minister did attend plenty of D-day events, but he missed a big gathering of world leaders. Look at this. Three leaders gather, and who's there for the UK? The bloke who was our Prime Minister eight years ago, Lord Cameron. The Prime Minister's apology is making headlines everywhere. It's one of those days when my phone never stops ringing and I'm on the radio again. The danger, the potency of a moment like this is that it has the capacity, and let's see, but it has the capacity to be noticed. By lunchtime, we're in Gloucestershire for Richie Sunak's next campaign stop. When you're having a bad day, nothing seems to go right. Just look at the street in Stonehouse he was visiting as his own Veterans Minister, himself a veteran, said this.

Undoutedly, veterans will feel pretty raw over this, and I don't dispute that, and I totally understand. Personally, it's a bit crushing, yes, but it is what it is, and it's happened, and he's apologized, and he's made a mistake, and it is not reflective of his wider work on veterans.

The Labor Leader was at the event yesterday that Richie Sunack missed, and you won't be surprised, he's quite keen to tell you about it.

It was really important to me. It was a privilege to be there, and Richie Sunack will have to answer for his choice. For me, there was only one choice, which was to be there to pay my respects, to say thank you.

This evening, the Prime Minister was in Melkisham Wiltshire, the questions and answers still flowing. That shows that we're on the right track.

But the NHS is disintegrating two and a half thousand GPs in this country who are currently unemployed due to your policies.

And a finger jabbing an angry GP wanting to diagnose a piece of her mind. A bumpy old day for Richie Sunack that he'll be glad is very nearly over. Chris Mason, BBC News.

Well, as we've seen, tonight saw the BBC's first televised debate of the election campaign with representatives from seven political parties answering questions on issues including immigration, the Health Service, and defense. Our Deputy Political Editor, Vicky Young, was watching. Seven parties with seven agendas, all hoping to persuade you that they have the answers. The questions came from the audience, reflecting concern about the economy, public services, and high numbers of people coming to the UK.

What are the parties What's the Green Party's going to do about immigration? Migration is absolutely essential to our public services.

It's absolutely essential to our businesses, and it's absolutely essential to our economic... Migration has been a good thing for this country. And so in the Green Party, our immigration policy is not about arbitrary numbers. That's why we're not talking about caps. Instead, it's about making our immigration system fairer and more humane. Unsurprisingly, the former leader of the Brexit Party had a different view. Frankly, it's making us poorer. It is diminishing our quality of life, and it's nothing to do, nothing to do with race or any of those issues. It's to do with actually putting the interests of our communities first. Let's change the tone of the debate on immigration. Too much of it is framed around, frankly, the bigotry of people like Nigel Farage. Is that the best you can do? The Clyde Company will stand up to Nigel Farage. Open doors. Everyone comes. Of course, we need rules. Everyone comes. Of course, we need rules. Benefits for everybody. Lovely. The best way to do this is to get your parliament elected by you to have an annual cap. What that will do is take into account the economic needs, the needs of the workforce, but also the pressures that immigration puts on communities.

Labor and the Lib Dem say the answer is to boost training and wages for those already here. People come to this country and they're propping up many of our services because we haven't trained the people to do that. But this is how Lib Dems run. We should give care workers a higher minimum wage, £2 higher, invest in our care workers, give them status, give them progression in the workforce, and then when we still have skills gaps, invite people in from other countries and welcome them when they come. How much the parties want to tax and spend is causing real friction in this campaign. We've heard We've heard overnight about twelve new taxes. That's rubbish. That labor are going to bring in. It's not rubbish. We've absolutely guaranteed we will not raise taxes for working people in this. How are you going to close that gap? Are you going to hit Benny Morden, whose government have put the tax burden up to the highest in this country since 1948, pretending they're a tax cutting party. Frankly, it is dishonesty on a breathtaking scale. Ms. Morden said cutting taxes was in the party's DNA. The SMP called for more honesty.

There's £18 billion worth of cuts baked in, which neither the Labor Party nor the Conservatives Party are being honest about. Instead, they're having the worst of Westminster argument between them tonight instead of being honest with you.

The Lib Dems called for fairer taxation. The Liberal Democrats were the first party to call for a windfall tax on the big oil and gas companies because we saw the raw injustice of these big companies raking in billions of pounds of profits when ordinary folk couldn't afford to pay their energy bills. A green economy would create jobs, well-paid jobs distributed all over the country, for example, on a nationwide home installation program. When you have two parties converging on public spending, converging on taxation, who's going to make sure that you're able to see the investment in housing for your children? Smiles and handshakes at the end, but the arguments will rage on. The Keyung, BBC News. Well, as the political row around Rishi Sunak intensified, RAF veteran Jack Hemmings was one of those making his way home from the D-Day commemoration. Jack attended the service at Bio War Cemetery with his grandson. He's been speaking to my colleague, Sophie Rayworth. Jack Hemmings, you served with the RAF during World War II. You didn't take part in the D-Day landings, but you were determined to be there. Yeah. Why?

Because after the war, I met a chap called Stuart King, who had been an engineering officer with a typhoon squadron, who had landed on the beach in D-day, the very beaches that we have just seen.

The Prime Minister was there. He was there at Bayer, where you were as well, the ceremony at Bayer. But he didn't stay for the international service. Do you think that matters to the veterans?

Well, some of them will take an issue at it, yes.

I can understand the division of what he would called his duty, and he opted to put the election before the thousands who were killed. On.

But it seems it was the wrong decision. I guess I would go along with it.

And do you think the veterans who were out there in Normandy People like you, I mean, you're 102. Do you think that they will be upset that the Prime Minister didn't stay?

Quite a lot will be, yes. I think the Prime Minister is upset, isn't he? Has he made any policy?

Jack Hemmings there on his way home from the D-Day Commemoration's our Political Editor. Chris Mason is here to assess. What a day, Chris.

What a day. When you hear those words from Mr. Hemmings, the gravity, the authority that comes with his experience. You don't need me to tell you just how awkward this has been for the Prime Minister. Now, it's interesting that he chose to apologize and will try and make a virtue of at least being able to say, Look, I'm the guy who is willing to apologize when I make a mistake. There's also a brutal truth in doing so in a general election campaign, which is that it puts rocket boosters up the whole story. It makes a bigger story out of all of it. I've been trying to get to the anatomy of this cock-up, to put it bluntly. And part of it is the stagecraft of statecraft. When a Prime Minister is head of government, is that an event, an international event like that, and the King is there and plenty of others, loads Loads and loads of conversations have gone on for weeks about this prior to the general election campaign, although the Prime Minister of all people had an idea of what was coming, even if the rest of us didn't. And he says, as we heard there, that he'd have come back early anyway, irrespective of the election campaign, irrespective of that interview he did on ITV, which does raise the question, well, would there not have been questions around your judgment irrespective of the election, if that's precisely what you had done?

Bluntly, what happened here is he and his team did not realize until it was too late that this would look terrible. When When they realized it looked terrible, they said, sorry. Quick look ahead to next week. Prime Minister will hope to put this behind him, although plenty of Conservatives are absolutely livid because they fear people will remember it. We're going to get to the manifestos, and I expect the Conservatives are going to pledge to cut stamp duty for first-time buyers. It doesn't look like there'll be any pledge on inheritance tax in the manifesto, but they'll try and get back, I think, to some of the big-ticket items in the hope they can put a terrible day behind them.

Chris, thank you, Chris Mason.