Theresa May was attacked by three other main parties' leaders at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday for refusing to take part in televised debates before the election.
Hours after May announced on Tuesday that she would be seeking to hold an early general election on 8 June, Downing Street confirmed that she would not go up against other leaders on TV on the run-up to the election.
The decision sparked criticism from other party leaders, and on Wednesday morning May responded on Radio 4's Today programme, saying: "I believe in campaigns where politicians actually get out and about and meet the voters." However, the attacks on her decision continued hours later tin the Commons.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was the first to mention the decision, opening his remarks by saying: "We welcome the general election, but this is a prime minister who promised there wouldn’t be one, a PM who cannot be trusted. She says it’s about leadership yet is refusing to defend her record in TV debates."
May shot back by saying she had "been answering his questions and debating these matters every Wednesday parliament has been sitting since I became PM".
The SNP's deputy leader Angus Robertson later used his intervention to say he looked forward to "the straight fight between the SNP and Tories".
"Can the PM tell the people why she is running scared of a televised debate with Nicola Sturgeon?" he added, to which May replied: "I can assure the right honourable gentleman that I will be out there campaigning in every part of the UK, taking out there our proud record of a Conservative government that has delivered for every part of the UK."
May was subsequently questioned for a third time on her stance, this time by Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, who told her: "The PM and I in 1992 debated publicly, forcibly, and amicably when we were both candidates together.
"Indeed, the PM called out the then incumbent who did not show up for some of those debates. Why will she not debate those issues publicly now? What is she scared of?"
.@theresa_may you debated me in 1992, so debate me now. What changed?
The loudest cheers from opposition benches during the session came when Yvette Cooper, Labour chair of the home affairs select committee, said:
"The prime minister yesterday said she was calling a general election because parliament was blocking Brexit, but three-quarters of MPs and two-thirds of the Lords voted for Article 50, so that’s not true, is it?
"And a month ago she told her official spokesman to rule out an early election and that wasn’t true either, was it? She wants us to believe that she is a woman of her word. Isn’t the truth that we cannot believe a single word she says?"
May replied that while parliament had voted to trigger Article 50, "the Labour party made it clear that they were thinking of voting against the final deal, the Scottish Nationalists have said that they will vote against the legislation necessary to leave the EU, the Liberal Democrats say they're going to grind government to a standstill, and the Lords have threatened to stop us at every step of the way."
MPs will be voting later on Wednesday on whether to trigger an early election on 8 June. Theresa May is expected to get the two-thirds of votes she needs, as most other parties have signalled that they will be voting to go to the polls.