Immigration brings the big debate to life

It was “immigration, immigration, immigration” as the ghost of Gordon Brown’s campaign gaffe haunted tonight’s TV debate between prime ministerial hopefuls.

While neither questioner nor the three party leaders spoke specifically of Mr Brown’s branding of pensioner Gillian Duffy as “a bigoted woman” after quizzing him on Eastern Europeans flocking to Britain, it was only when the issue she had raised yesterday in Rochdale bubbled up again in the Birmingham studio that the broadcast came alive.