SIR Keir Starmer dodged key questions on immigration and housing issues tonight as he was grilled by members of the public.
The BBC Question Time special also featured Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey and Scotland's First Minister John Swinney for the SNP, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak up last.
The Labour leader would not reveal a number target by which his party would reduce net migration.
"Every single politician who has put a number on it has never met that number," he told the audience.
Sir Keir added: "We want to get it down significantly. It needs to be balanced immigration so it works for our economy and works for our country.
Happy Valley's James Norton teases Tommy's 'deep hatred' in final series
"We need to get it down, but if we are going to do that, we need to understand what the problem is."
He pointed to training more people in various skills as one means of reducing net migration.
Sir Keir also ducked a volley of questions over whether he truly believed his predecessor would make a "great" prime minister.
Host Fiona Bruce repeatedly challenged him over his one-time statement on Jeremy Corbyn.
He insisted: "It wasn't a question that really arose because I didn't think we were going to win the election."
When Bruce asked for a "yes" or "no" answer to whether he meant it, there was laughter from the audience when he did not give one.
Instead Sir Keir said that Mr Corbyn would have made a better PM than Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir was also quizzed over his claim last week that the Conservatives had built a "Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto".
He said the Tories would "load everything into the wheelbarrow" without explaining how to pay for it.
An audience member asked him: "You criticised the Tory manifesto as Jeremy Corbyn-like.
His Dark Materials fans left open-mouthed after character’s shocking betrayal
"Anything you want can go in it, nothing is costed. Why did you back his original manifesto in 2019?"
Sir Keir replied: "In 2019 I campaigned for the Labour Party as I've always campaigned for the Labour Party."
He said that afterwards it became clear the electorate "thought it was too much and they wanted to see something which was fully costed and fully funded".
