against a number of characters on the left of the party, two need to be pointed out in particular, arnaud montebourg and hamon, they are the main contenders from the left wing of the socialist party, and what will happen today is probably that we will get manuel valls probably representing the right and one of those people representing the left will go through and there will be a run—off next week in which one or two will be chosen to represent the socialists that the party. i have to say that in normal times this would bea say that in normal times this would be a very big deal and the left would be represented by such and such a person in the election. these are not normal times. the socialist party is in deep disarray and it is possible the main contender will not be from the socialist party when it comes to the actual election in may. the time new cars are allowed on britain's roads before they need an mot could go up from three to four years, under government proposals. the department for transport said

as for arnaud montebourg, he stood firm, wanting to tackle unemployment.tebourg: banks have come out of it, so we will ask them to join my plan to fight unemployment. reporter: they were united online issue, being against the candidate on the right, franÇois de rugy. they also oppose the program to overhaul social security. candidates are set to face off each other for three more debates. the next will be held on sunday. molly: earlier, our friends policies editor joined us with more on france's left-wing candidates. debateas not a real because they essentially -- each of them, the seven of them parts of their program, and they did not really engage with each other, there were no real arguments, very few counter arguments, so they were essentially answering questions from the three journalists. they did this also because they want to present themselves as a potential uniter of the be ofist party and may the left, and this is really a very difficult position. the one that had to fear the most from this debate is the outgoing prime minister, manual boss -- m

manuel valls is the favorite to lead the socialist party, he expected to class tonight with arnaud montebourg and benoit hamon. will it all be in vain? and theggest the party deeply unpopular president francois hollande will be knocked out at the first round with the conservatives and the far right making it through to the second round. i'm joined by our french .olitical editor marc perelman manuel valls is the one with the most to lose tonight, isn't he? marc: absolutely. december 1, france of alone goes on national television -- francois hollande goes on national television. he decides he will not run again. this puts the party in a crisis. his prime minister, manuel valls, decides to throw his hat into the ring. we have this very short campaign. we have three debates within just the space of one week. round one, january 22. round two, january 29. you have seven contenders, but really there are three main contenders. manuel valls is the favorite, but, obviously, the weight of francois hollande's unpopularity is on him, because he was his prime minister. it's very difficult to say you were d

arnaud montebourg or benoit hamon are the two front runners for the left of them will probably go through polls for hollande have been particularly bad. whoever wins this primary is most unlikely to get very far in the actual presidential election. whoever wins this primary is fifth placed in the presidential race. we have the national front and the mainstream right but then you have two other characters who broadly call themselves left. on the ce ntre—left call themselves left. on the centre—left emanuel macron and at the far left another former socialist who is a very powerful and charismatic figure whose ratings are far ahead of anyone in the actual socialist party. the socialist party, all focuses on it now, but they know they are in deep disarray and we're looking back to the 1960s for the last time that the polls we re for the last time that the polls were so bad for the socialist party candidate. back then it was the communist party that were the real bannerfor the communist party that were the real banner for the left and now the socialists, the actual party, this historic party t