David Cameron has said he will take part in the televised leaders’ debates but called on them to take place before the official election campaign with the inclusion of parties in Northern Ireland.
The prime minister accused the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky of getting into a “bit of a muddle” with their revised plans to expand two of the debates to include the Greens, Scottish National party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru, and said the media had become obsessed with the issue.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Cameron was “wriggling and wriggling” to avoid a repeat of the 2010 encounters, which were regarded to have been a disaster for the Conservatives.
“I don’t think you can suddenly have the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru without having someone from Northern Ireland,” Cameron told the Today programme on Radio 4 on Tuesday.
“I think they have got into a bit of a muddle about that. I was making the point which is you can’t have Ukip without the Greens. The broadcasters then went off and did something else, which is their prerogative.
“The other point I made, which I have been making for well over a year, is that the debates are better outside of the election campaign.
“Last time I found, although the debates were excellent and I enjoyed taking part in them, they took all the life out of the election campaign, no-one could about anything else.”
Cameron added: “The BBC can’t wait to get on to the issue of the debates rather than talk about the issues, for heaven’s sake. Let’s get on and hold them.”
But he said his objections to the broadcasters’ proposals were “not unreasonable”.
“I want to go and debate,” he said. “These talks [with broadcasters] have got to happen and they have got to agree a format. I want to go but I made a perfectly reasonable point which is you can’t have Ukip without the Greens. Everyone said I was mad and now everyone agrees with me.
“Indeed the broadcasters have gone rather further than I suggested and have suggested including Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National party and all the rest of it.”
Asked whether he thought Respect MP George Galloway should also be allowed to take part, Cameron said: “It’s not up to me who goes … I was simply giving an opinion.”
He added: “In the end it is their programme; they are the ones talking to each other and then telling us what they think.”
The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky published new proposals last week expanding two of the three proposed debates, on BBC1 and ITV, to include seven party leaders following Cameron’s initial objections.
The broadcasters proposed the debates would take place fortnightly on 2, 16 and 30 April ahead of the poll on 7 May. Switching them before the official six-week election campaign, as Cameron had suggested, would mean these debates would have to be brought forward at least a month.
Miliband told BBC1’s Breakfast: “The prime minister is wriggling and wriggling to try to get out of these debates. If the broadcasters want to invite the Democratic Unionists or other Northern Irish parties, that is a matter for them.
“Frankly, it’s becoming a sort of charade from him. He clearly doesn’t want to do the debates and wants to find lots of different ways of trying to claim that he really does want to do them.”
Miliband, the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, and Ukip’s Nigel Farage have called on broadcasters to “empty-chair” Cameron if he refuses to take part.
Miliband told 5 Live: “I will give you a clear commitment. I am going to be at those debates, whether it’s an empty chair or David Cameron, I’m going to be at those debates.”
Speaking to LBC, Cameron insisted he was “not fighting shy” of the debates, but joked that viewers might anyway prefer to be watching BBC2’s Wolf Hall: “If people want to watch a television debate or if they prefer an episode of Wolf Hall, that’s up to them.”
Leader debates hosted by the UK’s main broadcasters are not the only offer on the table. Guardian News & Media and Telegraph Media Group have proposed an internet debate with a female moderator to be streamed live online in a partnership with YouTube.
