by Our Foreign Desk

The gloves came off in the US Democratic Party presidential nomination contest on Thursday night, when Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton went head to head.

The two prospective candidates, who came neck and neck in the Iowa caucus this week, had their first face-to-face debate in the New Hampshire town of Durham before that state’s primary next Tuesday.

With a CNN poll showing support for leftwinger Mr Sanders at 61 per cent to 30 per cent for establishment favourite Ms Clinton, the former secretary of state sought to counter the Vermont senator’s criticism that she is beholden to Wall Street donors.

“It’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out,” she said.

Mr Sanders said he was proud to be the only candidate not funded by powerful lobby groups. “I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans.”

He said Ms Clinton should “not only talk the talk but walk the walk” after she claimed she would be tough on finance-sector bosses.

Mr Sanders said that when a “kid gets caught with marijuana, that kid has a police record.” But when “a Wall Street executive destroys the economy,” he has none.

“That is what power is about, that is what corruption is about,” he said.

Asked if she would release transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street interests and others, Ms Clinton was noncommittal, saying: “I’ll look into it.”

She had struggled the day before to explain why she had accepted $675,000 (£465,000) from Goldman Sachs for delivering three speeches.