MPs will get the chance to vote on the issue of the proposed televised leaders’ debates on Wednesday when the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) brings the subject to the floor of the Commons chamber.
The DUP is calling for the creation of a US-style independent debates commission to take charge of future debate planning and to ensure what it describes as the “chaos” surrounding the 2015 events is not repeated.
It will also use the debate, which will see MPs vote on a motion tabled by the DUP because it’s a day when they get to choose Commons business, to criticise TV broadcasters for proposing to exclude it from the two multi-party debates planned for April.
The DUP’s plan for a debates commission is similar to the proposal Ed Miliband unveiled at the weekend for debates to be put on a statutory footing.
Nigel Dodds, the DUP’s deputy leader and its leader at Westminster, said: “At the moment, due to the incompetence of the broadcasters, these debates are in chaos and may well not happen.
“In future, we need to follow the example of the US and have an independent commission arrange any such debates. Too many politicians and broadcasters can’t be trusted to put their own self-interest aside and put that of the voters first.”
Echoing complaints made by the Conservative party, Dodds said that the broadcasters had handled the debate negotiations very poorly. “They’ve chopped and changed formats, blinked under pressure, refused to consult constructively and now are – absurdly – threatening not to have the prime minister present,” he said.
The BBC, ITV, Channel 4 News and Sky are proposing two debates involving seven parties (the Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems, Ukip, the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru) and one involving just David Cameron and Miliband, all taking place in April.
But Cameron has said he will only take part in a single, multi-party debate at the end of March. At the end of last week the broadcasters said they would press ahead with their plans regardless, but there is speculation that a legal challenge or editorial nervousness could yet provoke a rethink.
The DUP claims it has legal advice saying it could use the courts to block the multi-party debates from going ahead if they are not included. A party spokesman said they had no objection to being excluded from debates just featuring UK-wide parties, but that they would not accept being turned away if the SNP and Plaid Cymru were allowed to participate.
