The Green Party is challenging a BBC decision to ban it from party political broadcasts next year

The row comes after the party was nearly snubbed during May's election debates

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and the party's MP Caroline Lucas (Getty Images)

The Green Party has launched a challenge to a BBC decision to bar it from receiving party political broadcasts next year.

The public broadcaster allocated Ukip three of the broadcasts, up from zero – but has not given the Green Party any.

Ukip, the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives and Labour will now all received three broadcasts in 2016 – but the Greens will get none, despite significantly increasing their vote share at the last election.

Welsh and Scottish nationalist parties will also get broadcasts in Wales and Scotland respectively.

The change comes after the BBC Trust drew up new guidelines for allocating broadcasts. It said the old rules, drawn up in 2012, did not take into account the discrepancy between votes and seats in election results.

Party officials have written to the broadcaster to ask it to reassess its decision

“After all that happened last year I am astonished that the BBC has chosen to deny us vital broadcast coverage,” Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, said.

“We have the same number of MPs as Ukip who have been granted three broadcasts. We quadrupled our vote share in the last election. We’ve grown as a party by more than three times in the last 12 months.

“I’m starting to wonder what exactly it is that we need to do to convince the BBC to grant us fair representation.”

The row recalls the initial exclusion of the Green Party from the proposed programme of pre-election television debates.

After negotiations the party was ultimately included in a challenger debate and another broad debate featuring the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties.

The Green Party is asking people who support giving it broadcasts to sign a petition on the 38 Degrees campaign website.

The Green Party took 3.8 per cent of the vote in May compared to 7.9 for the Liberal Democrats and 12.6 for Ukip.

Ukip and the Greens both won one MP each, while the Liberal Democrats have eight.

As of September 2015 the Green Party also had around 66,000 members, up from 12,800 in 2010. Earlier this year Ukip reported that it had 47,000 members.

A BBC spokesperson said: “The allocation of PPB’s is based on criteria set down by the BBC Trust following a public consultation. The criteria are clear and reflect parties current and previous electoral support. The Green Party did not submit a response to the BBC Trust’s consultation.”