Greens not being included in TV debate ‘outrageous’, MSP claims

The SNP, the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems will appear in the debate on STV on Monday.

The Scottish Greens were not invited to the first Scottish debate on Monday (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Archive)

The decision not to include the Scottish Greens in a television debate is “outrageous”, one of the party’s senior MSPs has said.

STV will hold the first debate of the election campaign on Monday, featuring the leaders of the SNP, the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems.

Despite being the third biggest party at Holyrood, the Greens will not be represented on the panel.

The party does not hold any Scottish seats at Westminster and boasted just one MP in the last Parliament, who has since retired.

It is outrageous that a national broadcaster has excluded us from their leaders’ debate

Ross Greer

Ross Greer, one of the party’s most senior MSPs and a co-chair of its executive committee, said: “It is outrageous that a national broadcaster has excluded us from their leaders’ debate despite the Scottish Greens having been one of the five major parties in this country for more than 20 years.”

Mr Greer and fellow co-chair, Carolynn Scrimegour, wrote to STV chief executive, Simon Pitts, to urge him to include the party in the debate.

“Scotland has five mainstream political parties, all of whom have continuously held representation at national and local level in our country for decades,” the letter said.

“One of those parties is, of course, the Scottish Greens, so we are left perplexed by STV’s decision to exclude us from the centrepiece of your election campaign coverage.

“More people across Scotland will have the opportunity to vote for a Scottish Greens candidate this year than at any previous Westminster election.

“Therefore, the majority of your viewing audience will be deprived of the opportunity to hear from the full breadth of visions on offer from the mainstream party candidates in their constituency.

“In excluding our co-leaders from previous election debates, STV has relied heavily on the current level of representation each party holds at Westminster.

“We acknowledge that the Scottish Greens do not presently hold seats in the House of Commons, but this alone is not justification for our exclusion and essentially amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy; it is far less likely that a voter will choose to give their support to a party whom they have not had the opportunity to hear from as a result of decisions such as this.”

The party pointed to the fact all of the leaders are MSPs rather than candidates for Westminster, support for independence among the panel was out of step with the public and all of those participating were male, with the only female political leader in Scotland being Green co-leader Lorna Slater.

The party’s record in Government as part of the Bute House Agreement, the letter added, would likely be raised without anyone from the Greens to respond.

A spokesman for STV said: “Under the terms of our licences, STV’s programmes must comply with the Ofcom Broadcast Code and its rules around due impartiality.

“We are comfortable that our election coverage, including the leaders’ debate, meets these guidelines.”

A spokesperson for UK communications regulator Ofcom said: “Ofcom does not determine the line-up or format of any leaders’ debates.

“These are editorial matters for the broadcasters, who must comply with our rules on due impartiality”.