By Jennifer Scott, political reporter 

Outgoing Tory MP and minister of many things Michael Gove has just stuck his head in the door to take a look at the journalists beavering away.

So is he ready to spin yet?

"There will be no spin," he tells the reporters. "Only the truth".

I ask how Rishi Sunak is feeling with under an hour to go until the debate, and with a thumbs up Mr Gove tells me: "Very confident."

He then leaves the room as quickly as he entered.

I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of him later...

By Jennifer Scott, political reporter

With tonight's debate looming, the spin has begun in earnest with the dramatic entrance of Labour's Jonathan Ashworth. 

Stomping into the room waving a document entitled, "Two weeks, 12 pledges, £71bn still to find", he shouts about the "chaos" and "desperate scattergun approach" he claims the Tories are taking to their policy announcements. 

He promises the gathered journalists that he will be "sitting at the back with a calculator watching Rishi Sunak like a hawk" during the debate to see if he racks up any more bills that are "unfunded".

I ask him how Sir Keir Starmer is doing as he prepares to face Mr Sunak, and the Labour paymaster general tells me: "He is very worried... worried about the £71bn!"

It is going to be a loud evening in the spin room...

By Jennifer Scott, political reporter

I've taken advantage of a break in the rain to talk to people outside the TV studios about the upcoming debate - and I can't say the outcome is rosy for either of our contenders. 

Nicola Morris, 48, from Somerset, doesn't believe it will make any difference to the overall outcome of the election, telling me it is "such a forgone conclusion" - pointing to recent polls, including from Sky News, showing a Labour landslide. 

"So the debate is really unlikely to change any minds."

She says she is planning to vote for the Liberal Democrats as "the main opposition in the south west", having enjoyed Sir Ed Davey's stunts in recent weeks - and his party's policies. 

But the decision seems to be solidified by Rishi Sunak's announcement last week on national service. 

"It is just a vile idea, sending 18-year-olds into the military," she adds. "Let them make their own decisions."

The topic moves onto the party's annual visa cap to reduce immigration and how the pledge is going.

Victoria Atkins says the public "opened their arms to people fleeing the war in Ukraine" and also those fleeing Hong Kong and Afghanistan.

"On top of that, the health and social care visa, which is an important part of ensuring that we are able to attract the brightest and the best from around the world - that was incredibly popular," she says.

"The UK is an incredibly respected and popular country and around the world people want to come to work in our NHS. 

"And so that's why we are bringing these measures in to ensure that we are really concentrating on those sectors that need the international workforce."

That concludes tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge.

Our final guest on Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge this evening is Victoria Atkins, the health secretary.

We start with tonight's debate, and she says the PM will "set out his plans for the future of our country".

She immediately says the country has had "a tough couple of years with COVID and with the war in Ukraine", but insisted we are "turning a corner".

To that end, she says she hopes the economy, lowering taxes, and reducing migration will all be discussed tonight, as well as the national service plans and policies to "protect pensioners".

"Also, I hope that we hear the Labour leader answer some questions because so far his campaign has consisted of walking around with a single word placard [change] and describing that he's carrying a [Ming] vase.

"Well, I'm sorry, but governing our great country is much more complicated than walking around with a vase."

Asked about yesterday’s YouGov MRP poll that showed the Tories on course for defeat - as most have in recent months - Ms Atkins replies: "We can all think of polls in the past that were out of step with the British public and got it wrong."

She says they are working towards the actual election day, and they are getting "a very good reception on the doorstep".

Asked if the Lib Dems "need to be a bit more serious now" after Sir Ed Davey was seen on a paddle board and water slide this week as part of his election stunts, Christine Jardine says "we are very serious about our politics".

"Those photo opportunities were a way of drawing attention to those politics so that people hear what we have to say," she says.

"Ed is very serious about social care, for example."

She says the party was "drawing attention to the fact that there is a serious problem with our waterways and swimming waters in this country".

"In order to do that we had a photo opportunity," she adds.

The next guest on tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is Christine Jardine, the Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson.

Asked who she thinks is going to win tonight's debate, she replies that "the biggest danger tonight is that the public doesn't really like anything that they see".

She says people want something "different" from what both parties are offering, so the "the biggest thing tonight will be that the public just doesn't really engage with either Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer".

If you were watching the debates in 2010, you will remember that then leader Nick Clegg making quite the impact (think "Cleggmania", and the two party leaders fervently agreeing with him).

Asked if the debates could be decisive for the Lib Dems this year, Ms Jardine tells Sophy Ridge that when Sir Ed Davey, the current leader, gets a chance to participate in a debate, they will see "a very different debate".

"The important thing is we believe in listening to the public and that's what the public want."

Asked about Nigel Farage, who today had milkshake poured over him while campaigning in Clacton, Labour's Wes Streeting says he is "appalled" by it.

"I could not disagree more strongly with Nigel Farage on a number of issues but he is putting himself forward for an election and has the right to make his case," the shadow health secretary says.

"The best way to take on Farage is to debate him and beat him at the ballot box.

"Instead, chucking milkshake at him just puts him in the media more and there is a serious point - I'm sure when that person lunged forward he had no idea what was going on, what kind of liquid was being thrown at him and what threat he was under."

He goes on to say "it is serious".

Sophy Ridge puts to Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, that it feels like the Tories have so far announced far more policies than Labour during the election campaign, and asks if he's waiting for the manifesto for the rabbits to appear.

Mr Streeting does not address the question directly, however, pivoting to the Truss mini-budget and accusing the Tories of not having "learned the lessons" and planning on "splurging more than £70bn of unfunded spending commitments and tax cuts in the vain hope that people will forget 14 years of Conservative chaos".

Sophy pushes Mr Streeting on the apparently small number of policies from Labour, and he points to the party's plans to deliver 40,000 more NHS appointments per week, 13,000 more police officers, offering free primary school breakfast clubs, and more.

"There are plenty of policies we've already set out there, and - unlike the Conservatives - ours are fully costed and fully funded."

Labour's policies, he argues, would all amount to "change".

Wes Streeting, shadow health secretary, is now speaking to Sophy Ridge and is asked if Sir Keir Starmer has the most to lose tonight.

The Labour MP says "it is the country that's got the most to lose this general election if they hand the matches back to the arsonist to finish the job".

He says tonight's debate is about "five more years of chaos with the Conservatives" or "change for the better".

Mr Streeting also says the last 24 hours have just felt like "another chapter in the Conservative Party's psychodrama". 

"You've got Rishi Sunak crying into his cornflakes this morning because it's seen as a disaster for him," he says.

 "And you've got people who are currently Conservative candidates almost endorsing Nigel Farage on social media today."