He warned the BBC may have broken its own rules and, though he says he doesn’t want to stop the programmes, he insists the SNP must be involved in any debate shown in Scotland and that going to court remains a possibility.
The broadcasters have agreed terms with Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats for a series of live “prime ministerial” debates during the election campaign.
But the absence of a place for the SNP was branded unacceptable by Mr Salmond who says the SNP must be involved in any debate in Scotland.
The SNP is to hold talks with the BBC to try to defuse the row. One suggestion is that Mr Salmond could be offered a role commenting on the performance of the leaders in a studio discussion after their debate.
His spokesperson said: “The SNP have always said that we are prepared to be flexible in the format for the debates. The SNP are the party of Government in Scotland and are leading in the latest opinion polls for the Westminster elections. ”
The BBC said it would be holding separate debates in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Mr Salmond said: “I’m hoping we can get a positive outcome that allows the viewers to see political debate but also one which respects fairness and does what’s right.”
A Labour spokesman said: “Once again, Alex Salmond’s ego has been brought down with a bump. He isn’t a candidate for prime minister so it might be more sensible if the SNP instead accepted Labour’s call for an all-party general election debate to be screened in Scotland, as well as the prime ministerial debates.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article