THE SNP’s Culture Secretary has torn into the BBC’s coverage of the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election count.
Speaking live on BBC News just after midnight on Friday, Angus Robertson first took issue with the broadcaster allowing rumours from Labour that they were in with a chance of winning the vote to set the narrative of the coverage.
He then also called out the BBC for having spent the first 30 minutes of its by-election special – which was shown on BBC One Scotland and BBC News – without mentioning Christina McKelvie, the Scottish Government’s minister whose death left an empty seat at Holyrood.
BBC host Martin Geissler introduced Robertson and asked about suggestions from Labour sources at the count that their party could be on for a better result than had been expected.
Geissler asked: “Are you shocked by what you're hearing tonight?”
Robertson said: “Well, I mean, for a start, who knows? Because the truth of it is none of us know because the ballot boxes have just been opened, the verification count has just taken place.
“Somebody saying something to a journalist suddenly turns the narrative of the entire media coverage of the build-up towards the result before we actually know any facts.
“So the first thing I would say is that we should hold our horses and wait till we actually have samples, which the political parties all have, of a size big enough to be able to make an accurate prediction. I don't think any of the parties do."
Geissler then said: “If you are wrong … if you are run close by Labour, if you lose this to Labour, it's a bad night for the SNP, right?”
Robertson replied: “I'll come to that question in a second, but one name hasn't been mentioned here so far, which is Christina McKelvie.
“Secondly, I think in fairness to everybody in the panel, I don't think anybody would have wanted to have the by-election because she was a fantastic MSP and the voters would have their say in the normal course of events.”
The SNP minister added: “Let's understand we're having a by-election because somebody died far too young.”
Speaking to the BBC from the count, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie acknowledged that no one had wanted there to be a by-election and paid tribute to McKelvie.
Baillie further declined to express as much confidence in a Labour victory as anonymous sources from the party had done, saying that people "across the political spectrum are turning to Reform" who she called an "unknown factor".
