ALEX Salmond will write to Ofcom in a bid to ensure his Alba Party takes place in televised election debates and has insisted he will not rule out taking legal action to try and force his way into the high-profile events.
Mr Salmond did not take part in Tuesday’s BBC leaders’ debate – but has stressed “the case for Alba participation in debates and fair coverage is unanswerable” after his party was brought up by BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith and Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie during the event.
The former first minister has insisted that giving the Alba Party a platform alongside his political rivals would also ensure a balanced panel on independence. However, the Alba Party is not the only party standing for election in May that did not take part in Tuesday's debate.
The Alba Party leader has announced he will officially write to Ofcom and broadcasters to ensure his party is not excluded from taking part in forthcoming broadcast events.
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Mr Salmond said: “It is less than a week since launch and already Alba has a comparable number of members to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens and are contesting seats across Scotland.
“We also have double the Westminster parliamentary representation of the Labour Party in Scotland.”
He added: “There is however a further important reason favouring Alba inclusion in the leadership debates.
“The dominating issue of the election is independence. If the TV companies stick to their present position, every debate will be imbalanced three to two against independence. With Alba’s representation, at a stroke, the independence argument will be balanced three apiece.
“Watching the debate on Tuesday night my name was mentioned a number of times with no recourse. In addition, the moderator, Sarah Smith, sought to elicit information from audience members about support for Alba.
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“We have waited until the declaration of candidates before writing. Now given our strength the case for Alba participation in debates and fair coverage is unanswerable. We expect a positive reply.”
Mr Salmond was asked if he will take legal action if his appeal for the Alba Party to be represented at debates falls on deaf ears.
He said: “I’m certainly not ruling that out.
“I hope and believe that won’t be necessary. I heard Willie Rennie talk about me three or four times in the debate. I heard the invigilator talk about Alba in the debate.
“You can’t really conduct a debate talking about political parties when they are not represented – that's not fair, it’s not right.
"You should have three parties arguing in favour of independence and three arguing against it – the parity that’s required in a political debate, I think Alba can offer that. I’m hoping and believe that the broadcasters will see the advantages of that."
The BBC said smaller parties were not included in Tuesday’s debate for a number of reasons including participation being based on previous and current electoral support – with all parties involved having MSPs elected to Holyrood in 2016.
A BBC spokesperson said: "Nominations have now closed so we'll be looking, as we always do at this stage in an election campaign, at our future plans for coverage in line with out guidelines and Ofcom's guidance."
A spokesperson for STV said: "STV will have wide-ranging election coverage across news and current affairs, and we'll share more details with you shortly.
"Across the board, our coverage will be comprehensive and in line with Ofcom guidance."
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