Salmond slams rigged election debate proposals

Commenting on the statement from the broadcasters on TV General Election debates, Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond said:

"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.

"If these debates are to be at all relevant to their audiences, they must reflect the democratic reality of Scotland and political diversity across the UK. And that must include SNP involvement in debates broadcast in Scotland.

"The fact is that the General Election in Scotland will be a two-horse race between the SNP and Labour – and the most recent Scottish poll for Westminster put the SNP ahead, at 34 per cent compared to 32 per cent for Labour, 15 per cent for the Tories, and 12 per cent for the Lib Dems.

"The broadcasters have got to meet their public service obligations to audiences across the UK, and for them to propose debates which signally fail to do so shows an extraordinarily high-handed attitude and depressingly metropolitan mindset. We have had leaders’ debates in Scotland for many years, so there is nothing new in that.

"The broadcasters would do well to recall the debacle experienced by the BBC’s Panorama programme in 1995, when they were forced not to broadcast an interview with the Prime Minister in Scotland because it breached the rules of impartiality during a Scottish local election.

"We shall seek guarantees of inclusion from the broadcasters, given their inescapable duty to ensure fairness and impartiality in election-related coverage in Scotland.

"Sky has made some constructive suggestions, but we have had no proposals from the BBC or ITV – which is extraordinary, given that these broadcasters have the greatest public service obligations.

"We are always prepared to be flexible about options for the format, but the party of government in Scotland must as a matter of principle and proper democratic practice be included in any UK-wide debates.

"The SNP are seeking to have a substantial influence at Westminster by electing a block of 20 or more MPs, with obvious UK-wide political implications - not least given the perfectly possible outcome of a hung parliament.

"And on a range of issues which will loom large in the General Election campaign, the SNP have a distinctive as well as compelling policy position. For example, while the London-based parties will debate whether there should be three or four Trident nuclear weapon submarines on the River Clyde, the SNP will be arguing for none – a position backed by the Scots Parliament, as well as a majority of Scottish Westminster MPs.

"In other words, both from the Scottish and UK perspectives, the governing parties of Scotland and indeed Wales cannot have our voices silenced by rigged debates."

Note: A briefing of the latest Ipsos MORI opinion poll – the most recent Scottish poll for a General Election – is attached /