David Cameron and Ed Miliband have attempted to convince voters they have what it takes to lead the country into 2020 in the first major showdown of the election campaign.
In 90 minutes of the Sky News Channel 4 Battle for Number 10 programme the two men faced tough questioning from the arch inquisitor Jeremy Paxman and members of the studio audience, hosted by Kay Burley.
Mr Miliband attempted to burnish new hardman credentials by telling Paxman "hell yes I'm tough enough" to run the country and said he had stood up to the "leader of the free world" Barack Obama over military action in Syria.
And he said he didn't care if people just thought he was a "north London geek".
In a candid exchange with the studio audience Mr Miliband admitted he had been "bruised" by the leadership battle with his brother, David, in 2010 and it had left the relationship strained but it was healing.
He said: "It was a difficult contest between me and David. It was a bruising contest. Why did I stand? I thought someone needed to lead the Labour Party who could move us on from New Labour.
"Because I thought that was a time that was necessary for the country, and necessary for our party.
"And I had strong views about how we needed to change the country. I think this country's too unequal and we've got to change. I think New Labour was too relaxed about inequality."
Under questioning from Paxman Mr Cameron was forced to admit that he could not live on a zero-hours contract, like 700,000 ordinary people.
He was accused of protecting his rich friends, like Lord Green, the Tory peer and former HSBC chairman, and Jeremy Clarkson, but not helping the poor.
An early ICM/Guardian poll gave victory to Mr Cameron with 54% of the 2,000 people asking saying he had performed best, but it was close and 46% gave the win to Mr Miliband.
Sky News Political Editor Faisal Islam said that the "hard Ed" persona was "something we had not seen before".
He said: "[Ed Miliband] surprised us the most.
"We saw a kind of hard Ed Miliband that you would not recognise from [coverage in] the papers."
"In Paxman's interview with the Prime Minister he did look rather rattled," Islam added.
"The PM didn't make any gaffes but it wasn't comfortable viewing ... When he came out for the Q&A it was very smooth, the Prime Minister that we know – involving anecdotes about his family, sounding very ordinary and normal - it was his comfort zone."
Sky News Business Editor Ian King said Mr Miliband had diagnosed problems with the economy without offering convincing solutions - but also criticised his Tory opponent.
"I was surprised actually how poor the Prime Minister was on the economy," King said.
"That is undoubtedly his strongest hand, and I think he could have laid on with a trowel the crisis that this country faced when the coalition came to power - but he didn't do that."
Both men struggled with questions over immigration, Mr Cameron admitting he had failed to hit his own target on driving down net migration and Mr Miliband refusing to put a figure on the number foreigners coming to the UK.
Mr Miliband told Paxman he was "not going to get into a bargaining game with Alex Salmond" ahead of the election and was not planning on an SNP deal to get into power.
But when Paxman suggested he would bargain with Mr Salmond if it meant it would win the keys to Number 10, Mr Miliband drew laughter from the audience by saying: "Don't be so presumptuous. You're important Jeremy but not that important."
Mr Cameron faced repeated criticism over the friends he made, Paxman saying: "What do you have in common with all these rich people?"
But he responded: "The aspersion you are trying to cast is completely ridiculous."
He was accused of failing on his 2010 election pledge to "fix broken Britain" and conceded the job of turning around the economy was not yet finished and there was more work to be done.
He said: "What I have done for the last five years is lead a Government that has got the economy growing, has got people back to work, has cut the taxes of the poorest people in our country.
"I am not saying we have achieved everything we set out to do, but the country is immeasurably stronger."
Mr Cameron had refused to debate Mr Miliband head-to-head but agreed to a 90-minute session which was split into 18-minute interviews for each man with Paxman and an 18-minute questions session with a studio audience.
The men remained at odds over the European Union with Mr Cameron attempting to stave off the UKIP threat by telling voters the Conservatives were the only party which would offer a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.
Mr Miliband said it was extremely unlikely there would be an in-out referendum if there was a Labour government.
The two men tossed a coin to decide who should go first and the Labour leader won and chose to go second, giving him the final word.
There are a further three televised events in the 40 days remaining to the election – Mr Cameron will only take part in two of those, Mr Miliband all three.
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