THERESA MAY last night appeared to backtrack on her refusal to take part in any general election TV debates.

Mrs May had said she would not take part in debates similar to those before the 2010 and 2015 elections.

She told BBC Radio 4 she believed in ‘campaigns where politicians actually get out and about and meet with voters’. Downing Street aides are now said to be preparing for talks with the corporation over possible broadcasts, with Mrs May favouring a Q&A format where she would take questions from an audience rather than appear alongside rival leaders.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had criticised her stance in the Commons and asked: ‘If she’s so proud of her record, why won’t she debate it?’ Lib Dem leader Tim Farron accused Mrs May of being ‘scared’, while Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood called for her to be replaced with an ‘empty chair’ if she ignored the debates.

ITV confirmed it would stage a leaders’ debate, with Julie Etchingham expected to moderate as she did two years ago when David Cameron faced off against Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg in front of 7million viewers. The BBC’s head of news-gathering, Jonathan Munro, said it would ‘not want to get in a position where any party leader stops us doing a programme we think is in the public interest’.

Three election debates were held in 2015, on BBC1, ITV and Sky News — while Q&A panels took place before the EU referendum.