THE SNP has urged television broadcasters to rethink their plans to exclude the party from any leaders' debates during next year's General Election campaign.
Angus Robertson, the Nationalists' Westminster leader, spoke out after it was revealed programme makers want to give Ukip a platform on the proposed shows. It comes as the threat of legal action from the SNP, if it is left out, hangs over the mooted TV specials.
Mr Robertson said: "The broadcasters need to go back and think properly about what these proposed debates are supposed to be about.
"At the last election the argument for excluding SNP and other voices was they were about who would be the next Prime Minister, but nobody can seriously be suggesting Nigel Farage will be taking that office in May.
"The inclusion of Ukip in these proposals means there is no way the SNP - the third biggest party in the UK - can be excluded."
The MP had earlier made clear legal action to block the proposals, as the SNP tried unsuccessfully in 2010, remained an option if negotiation did not lead to changes.
"We will not rule out any opportunities to get fairness in broadcasting coverage in the run-up to the election," he said, as he argued the current proposals were "unacceptable".
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said: "The SNP will always come forward with complaints like this."
The Liberal Democrats want the TV debates next year to be in the same format as in 2010, with three debates involving the leaders of the three main UK parties over three weeks.
Mr Carmichael said: "We are a UK-wide party. We stand candidates across the United Kingdom, they don't and they seem to ignore quite conveniently the fact there is always within Scotland accommodation made for debates that do completely respect the position of the SNP."
A BBC Scotland spokesman said: "In Scotland, the BBC is proposing a debate, in peak time on BBC1, involving the leaders of the SNP, Scottish Labour, Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Liberal Democrats parties. We have written to the parties to begin discussions about our proposals and we will ensure impartiality during the election in Scotland."
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