A Channel 4 election debate on the economy has been scrapped, amid claims from the Labour Party that Chancellor Sajid Javid is “running scared”.
Labour suggested that Mr Javid refused to take part in the debate, proposed to take place this weekend, which shadow chancellor John McDonnell had agreed to.
Channel 4 said plans for the debate are “currently on hold” as it was “not possible to reach an agreement with all parties”.
READ MORE: Decision to omit SNP from Sky election debate 'defies democracy' says Nicola Sturgeon
Mr McDonnell said: “Sajid Javid is running scared of debating with me and completely understandably, as the Tories are inventing silly figures which Labour would pull apart in a public debate.
“Clearly the Tories can’t even cost their own programme.
“Let me make it completely clear that the figures published by the Tories about Labour’s spending plans are fake news, and I reiterate that income tax rates under Labour won’t rise for 95 per cent of people, and that only the top five per cent would pay more.
“There will also be no VAT increases under Labour.”
A Channel 4 spokesman said: “Plans for a chancellors/economy debate are currently on hold as it was not possible to reach an agreement with all parties.
“If the situation does change, we would certainly explore options on how best to proceed.
READ MORE: BBC accused of 'short-changing' voters in Scotland with Boris Johnson/Jeremy Corbyn head-to-head
“We will be announcing our election plans in due course.”
Labour said the party has been informed that the proposed 90-minute set piece on Sunday November 17 has been shelved.
Mr Javid told Channel 4 News on Monday evening: “I understand that there’s discussions going on. I’m not going to pre-empt those, but it’s always good to have a robust discussion, and I’m happy to discuss with John McDonnell any time.”
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 here