SNP demands place in TV debates

Alex Salmond warned that the SNP must be in any televised debates between party leaders.
12 April 2012

The Scottish National Party has warned that it must be included in any televised debates between party leaders broadcast in Scotland during the general election campaign.

Broadcasters BBC, ITV, and Sky announced on Monday they had agreed terms with the three main UK parties - Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats - for a series of live "prime ministerial" debates during the campaign.

But SNP leader Alex Salmond issued a statement on Sunday night warning that it would be "entirely unacceptable" if his party was excluded from any such programme screened in Scotland,

Mr Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, stopped short of threatening legal action to block the debates.

But he referred pointedly to the "debacle" of a 1995 BBC Panorama programme which was prevented from screening an interview with then Prime Minister John Major in Scotland because it would have breached its duty of impartiality during a Scottish local election campaign.

"It is entirely unacceptable to Scotland as well as to the SNP for the broadcasters to exclude the party that forms the government of Scotland - and indeed is now leading in Westminster election polls," Mr Salmond said.

The BBC said it would be holding separate debates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland among all the main parties, which would be broadcast on BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and across the UK on the BBC News Channel.

ITV said that it would observe its obligations of due impartiality in its electoral coverage and give airtime in other programming to the views of other parties "as appropriate". Sky News said that it intended to broadcast separate debates to be held in Scotland and Wales among the main parties in those nations.

Plaid Cymru's leader in Westminster, Elfyn Llwyd, called for his party to be included and said the details of the separate debates to be held in Wales were not known.

He told BBC Radio Wales's Good Morning Wales programme: "As it stands it's unfair because it places us in an electoral disadvantage. It doesn't matter what might be cobbled together in the future to appease Wales. My view is the Electoral Commission should have a good look at it."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in