BEFORE last night’s debate had even started there was already a clear loser.

Theresa May came under attack from all sides after she dinghied the live televised clash between Britain’s party political leaders.

The SNP’s Angus Robertson called her “weak and wobbly” and dubbed her the “U-turn queen”, given her complete reversal on strongly held positions like the dementia tax, and holding a General Election in the first place.

However, the one decision that there was little danger of May U-turning on was her choice to rule out appearing in any head-to-head clashes with Jeremy Corbyn during the campaign.

It was, pundits assumed, some sort of strategy to avoid taking any risks at all whatsoever, so confident was she of victory. With polls this week showing her lead has halved, that strategy has clearly backfired.

Corbyn, who initially said he wouldn’t do last night’s debate without the Prime Minister, buoyed by that slew of positive polls, and good response to his appearance on the Channel 4/Sky News debate earlier in the week, changed his mind.

It was a stunning move. Instead of a clash between surrogates and leaders of the smaller parties, the night became about May and her leadership.

Earlier in the day on the campaign trail, the Tory leader had even appeared to criticise Corbyn for appearing on television, saying: “I’m interested in the fact that Jeremy Corbyn seems to be paying far more attention to how many appearances on telly he is doing. I think he ought to be paying a little more attention to thinking about Brexit negotiations.”

Quizzed about her continued boycott following a visit to a factory in Bath, May said it was unnessecary as she repeatedly debated with Corbyn at Prime Minister’s Questions.

“I’ve been very clear from the start that the sort of campaign I want to do is about taking questions, meeting people,” she said. “I’ve not been off the television screens, I’ve been doing things on the television, but predominantly taking questions from voters and listening to voters."

Though Corbyn’s last minute decision to take part in the debate put May on the back foot, it did come with an element of risk.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who was one of the stars of the pre-Brexit vote debates, was there in place of May. According to The Sun, Rudd’s father had died just two days earlier. It was, all things considered, an incredible effort. But she was never anything other than a human shield for the Prime Minister.

Alongside Robertson, the others in the seven-way debate were Caroline Lucas from the Greens, Leanne Wood from Plaid Cymru, Ukip’s Paul Nuttall, and Tim Farron from the LibDems.

Farron, put the boot in straight away: “Where do you think Theresa May is tonight? Look out your window, she might be there sizing up your house to pay for your social care.”

Corbyn was at his strongest pushing the Tory minister on cuts to welfare and lowering living standards. “Have you been to a food bank?” he asked Rudd. “Have you seen people sleeping around our stations? Have you seen the levels of poverty that exists because of your government’s conscious decision on benefits?”

His trickiest moment came during a question on immigration. He said a Labour government would have a “fair” immigration policy but refused to be drawn on numbers.

“Fair is where you bring people in when they have got jobs to come to or it is necessary for them to be working here or we need them to assist in the economy. That is fair,” he said.

That question was probably Robertson’s strongest, bringing a large round of applause from the Cambridge audience. The level of debate, the SNP politician said, “shames and demeans us all”.

He added: “I don’t think there is anyone in this room, or anybody watching this debate from Cornwall to Caithness, who does not understand the positive contribution that people have made to this land who have come from the rest of Europe and the rest of the world, and demonising those people is totally unacceptable.”

The tone was lowered by Ukip’s Nuttall who, with his party flagging in the polls, seems to have edged further right, pledging to “put the interests of British people first”, blaming lower living standards on the canard of an “oversupply of labour”, and when answering a question on immigration immediately blaming Muslims.

“It was not a Muslim who shot Jo Cox, it was a white, right-wing, neo-Nazi,” Robertson interjected.

It was a noisy debate, the seven frequently speaking all over each other, often with Nuttall at the centre who answered with a confidence and a volume disproportionate to his accuracy.

Audience members asked questions on living standards, immigration, extremism, climate change, and, right at the end, leadership. “The first rule of leadership is to show up,” said Lucas.

“You don’t call an election then not turn up.”

Farron said May had called a General Election “and then run away from the debate”.

“You are not worth Theresa May’s time, don’t give her yours,” he added.

Robertson argued that real leadership was about putting the country before your party.

The only reason May had called the election, he said, was “because she thought she was going to have a massive majority as a result of it”.

“Where has strength and stability gone? Weak and wobbly is where we are. Not so much the Iron Lady as the U-turn Queen.”