Newnhamite Julie Etchingham will moderate the seven-way leaders’ general election live TV debate as they go head-to-head for the first time.
Conservative leader David Cameron, Labour’s Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg for the Lib Dems, Nigel Farage for UKIP, Nicola Sturgeon for the SNP, Leanne Wood for Plaid Cymru and the Green Party leader Natalie Bennett will answer questions from the studio audience, as well as debating contentious issues tonight (April 2).
The two-hour debate will take place at MediaCityUK in Salford and it is expected to be watched by around 10 million people.
Etchingham (NC 1988) was the first woman from her comprehensive school in Leicester to go to Cambridge University.
She was taught by Germaine Greer during her time reading English at Newnham, as a student she worked for BBC Cambridgeshire and joined the BBC as a graduate trainee after she completed her degree.
She is now presents ITV News.
The Newnhamite met her husband Nick Gardener, a TV producer, when they were both working on Newsround and they have two sons. After a period at Sky she moved to ITV and replaced Sir Trevor McDonald on the News at Ten and Tonight, the current affairs programme on ITV.
She has presented the news from locations including Washington, Islamabad and Japan and has fronted special coverage of the Royal Wedding and Diamond Jubilee.
Etchingham was the first women to be named Royal Television Society Presenter of the Year in 2010.
In a blog, she said: “Preparing for the ITV Leaders’ Debate has been an experience like no other.
“In the space of weeks it’s blown hot – cold, morphed from four players to seven – then possibly six – and thankfully now back to seven again. It could get messy and it could get ragged. But in the end isn’t that precisely a snapshot of the state of our politics?
“And how will the men react to the women leaders? None surely would dare a patronising tone or a roll of the eyes.”
The debate will be the only time during the election campaign that David Cameron and Ed Miliband go head-to-head before polling day and the debate was only confirmed after weeks of wrangling.
Only four substantial election questions will be addressed during the broadcast.
The seven party leaders will then be allowed to make a one minute statement after each question followed by an 18-minute free-for-all.
The dynamics of how the leaders interrupt, challenge and inter-relate with one another will be analysed by Etchingham and her ITV co-presenter Mark Austin after the debate.
The leaders, who will be facing a 200-strong studio audience, have not been told the questions in advance.