UK's Sunak and Starmer struggle to be heard as a noisy protest mars their final election debate

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Keir Starmer struggled to get their messages across in the first half of their fiery final televised debate of the U.K. election campaign on Wednesday as protesters drowned out their answers.

The two politicians vying to become Britain's leader after the July 4 election faced off live on the BBC. As the event got underway, indistinguishable but loud shouting could be heard from outside the venue at Nottingham Trent University in central England, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators had gathered outside.

Host Mishal Husain acknowledged the distraction, which continued as the two politicians traded barbs about ethics, tax and migration. Protest is a part of Britain's democracy, she noted.

Neither Starmer or Sunak made any reference to the protest. The ruckus, though it tapered off in the second half of the debate, made for a messy end to a debate series that has seen Starmer, Sunak and other party leaders appeal directly to voters.

Sunak, who has been prime minister since Oct. 2022 but whose Conservative Party is trailing Labour in the polls, was on the offensive during the debate as he sought to turn the political dial.

He accused Starmer of planning big tax rises and of being lax on immigration, claiming “people smugglers are going to need a bigger boat” under a Labour government.

He also asked the Labour leader whether he, if elected, would make a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan about sending back asylum seekers rejected from the United Kingdom. Sunak's government has made such an agreement with Albania and has legislated to send some asylum-seekers who reach Britain by boat across the English Channel on a one-way trip to Rwanda, a policy that Starmer said he'll get rid of if he comes to power.

“It’s completely nonsensical,” Sunak said. “You are taking people for fools.”

Opinion polls have for months been showing that Labour is set to return to power after 14 years and that Sunak's Conservatives are heading for a historic defeat.

Starmer insisted during the debate that nothing should be taken for granted and that people needed to go out and vote at the election on July 4 if they wanted “change.”

However, both candidates dodged giving a direct response to an audience member who asked whether they were “the best we’ve got to be the next prime minister of our great country."

Sunak said he understood the frustration that was implicit in the question, given the tough times the country has experienced in the last few years, during the coronavirus pandemic and its aftermath.

Starmer said he was not surprised by the question, “that people feel this way because the country is in such a state.”

Next week British voters will elect lawmakers to fill all 650 seats in the House of Commons, and the leader of the party that can command a majority — either alone or in coalition — will become prime minister. Labour currently has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over the Conservatives, who have been in power for 14 years under five different prime ministers.

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Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, right, ahead of the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and host Mishal Husain pose ahead of the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, take part for the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, take part for the BBC's Prime Ministerial Debate, in Nottingham, England, Wednesday June 26, 2024. (Phil Noble/Pool via AP)

NANTERRE, France (AP) — One year after a French teenager with North African origins was killed by police — a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France — his mother led a silent march Saturday to pay homage to her son.

It comes at a politically fraught time. Hate speech is blighting the campaign for snap parliamentary elections taking place this weekend, and an anti-immigration party that wants to boost police powers to use their weapons, and has historic ties to racism and antisemitism is leading in the polls.

Several hundred family members, friends and supporters gathered in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to remember 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot dead at point-blank range by a police officer at a traffic check on June 27, 2023.

Within hours of his death, Merzouk, a delivery driver from a working-class neighborhood, became a symbol. For many across France, he was the embodiment of young French Black and North African men who, studies show, face police checks and discrimination more frequently than their white counterparts.

At Sunday's march, his mother Mounia spoke to the crowd then broke off in tears. Friends wore white t-shirts with Merzouk’s photo, and fellow residents of his housing project held a banner reading “Justice for Nahel.” The march ended at the spot where he was killed, and an imam sang and read a prayer.

There was no visible police presence, though organizers of the march recruited guards to ensure security for the event. Merzouk's mother asked politicians to stay away, to avoid politicking or tensions the day before France’s parliamentary elections.

On Sunday, French voters will cast ballots in the first round of snap elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, that could lead to the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation.

French opinion polls suggest the National Rally party could dominate the next parliament after the July 7 second round and get the prime minister’s job. In that scenario, Centrist President Emmanuel Macron would retain the presidency until 2027 but in a sharply weakened role.

“This march, happening now, it is a powerful symbol," said Assa Traore, who has been fighting for justice since her brother Adama died in the custody of French police in 2016.

“It means that history can’t write itself without us. We, from the working-class neighborhoods, are the firsthand victims of these elections. We realized, from an early stage, that the National Rally and far-right parties were a danger for our country and will weaken it," said the 39-year-old with Malian roots who will march alongside Merzouk’s family.

Merzouk's death, which was captured on video, stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and disadvantaged suburbs, many of whom are French-born youth with immigrant family backgrounds. Fueled by TikTok, riots spread with unprecedented speed before a mass police crackdown. The unrest caused, according to French authorities, more than $1 billion in damage.

The officer who fired the shot cited self-defense, and an extreme-right figure started a crowdfunding campaign for the policeman that drew $1.6 million before being shut down.

Citing security concerns, notably in housing projects and other impoverished areas in French suburbs or “banlieues,” the far-right National Rally wants to give a specific new legal status to police. If police officers use their arms during an intervention, they would be presumed to have acted in self-defense. Currently police officers have the same legal status as all French citizens and have to prove they acted in self-defense.

The left-wing coalition New Popular Front, meanwhile, wants to ban the use of some police weapons and dismantle a notoriously tough police unit.

“People fear the victory of the National Rally. But, we, people from working-class neighborhoods, are afraid every day that our sons, brothers, or husbands will be killed. Racism and racial profiling are our daily life," Traore said.

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Follow AP's coverage of elections worldwide at https://apnews.com/hub/global-elections/

FILE - Flowers lay at the tomb of Nahel Merzouk on July 5, 2023 in a cemetery in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. One year after the French teenager with North African origins was killed by police, a shooting that sparked shock and days of rioting across France, his mother is leading a silent march Saturday, June 29, 2024 to pay homage to her son. (AP Photo/Cara Anna, File)