Deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has hit out at rules governing audience behaviour during the much-anticipated live television debates between party leaders.
The audiences for the three debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg in the run-up to the General Election have been banned from booing, hissing and heckling, and restricted to limited applause.
Ms Harman told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "Why do we have to control the British audience?
"I mean are Brits going to sit there and be told: 'Don't groan, don't laugh, don't clap'. I don't think people will do that, I think people will engage."
Shadow defence secretary Dr Liam Fox compared the rules to those of the "incredibly sterile" TV debates between US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.
He said: "You were not allowed to applaud, not allowed to cough, not allowed to laugh, not allowed to do anything.
"Even the temperature was controlled to a degree that it wouldn't get too hot for the candidates under the lights."
The Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat leaders will take part in three 90-minute live debates in front of studio audiences on ITV1, Sky News and BBC1.
Dates for the debates, which will be broadcast in mid-evening weekday slots, will not be finalised until Mr Brown announces the date of the general election, widely expected to be May 6.
Most of the 200-strong audience will be picked by pollsters ICM to ensure a balance of gender, age, ethnicity, social class and voting intention.
