Leaders of UK Parties to Hold Televised Debate Prior to General Election

UK political party leaders will participate in a televised debate on Thursday, following the kickoff of the British election season earlier this week.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The UK general election is scheduled for May 7, 2015. British voters will elect representatives to sit in the House of Commons, the country's lower house of parliament, for five-year terms.

The Labour and Conservative parties are major rivals in the upcoming election, with a YouGov Sunday poll revealing that 36 percent of voters polled backing Labour and 32 percent of the poll respondents supporting the Conservative Tories.

Monday marked the start of the election season in Britain, with parties formally launching their campaigns.

There are several crucial issues in this election season, including Britain's National Health Service funding, immigration, other public service austerity measures, spending cuts and the possibility of holding a referendum on UK's European Union membership.

The debate, including leaders of the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, UK Independence, Green, Scottish National and Plaid Cymru parties will be broadcast on the ITV channel.

Each politician will be given one minute to answer four questions submitted by the audience, and a debate topic will open up for 18 minutes of live, off-the-cuff grandstanding by the politicians, according to ITV.