Why SNP should be at the heart of the TV debate

LET’S get it out there right at start because I’m not going to say this very often: Nicola Sturgeon is right. She is right that the SNP should be represented in the General Election debates. Indeed, if the Nats aren’t included while Ukip and possibly the Greens get to share the limelight, that will be wrong: politically, electorally and morally.

Everyone seems to have been so caught up in the taunts of ‘chicken’ and ‘coward’ at Westminster that we have forgotten what these debates are all about.

Either they are prime ministerial debates and will help us, the voters, choose between the potential candidates for No 10 – or they are party leader debates.

If they are prime ministerial debates, only David Cameron and Ed Miliband should take part.

There should be no room for Nick Clegg; can anyone really argue that the Lib Dem leader has even the remotest chance of taking over in Downing Street?

The Lib Dems are heading for a hammering in May. Even if they end up propping up one of the big parties again, they are likely to be doing so from a position of greater weakness than before.

SO, if the debates are about the candidates for No 10, there has to be no Mr Clegg: really, no one should feel the need to agree with Nick this time round. But the broadcasters have already widened the pool from that starting point. By agreeing to allow not just Mr Clegg but Ukip’s Nigel Farage into the debates, they have admitted they are no longer prime ministerial.

Mr Farage is not going to be Prime Minister any more than Mr Clegg is. But, crucially, neither is Natalie Bennett of the Greens or Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP – yet they haven’t been invited to take part.

Once it is accepted that these are party leader debates, then everyone who leads a party which might realistically win a decent number of seats at Westminster should get an invitation. That means the Greens and, yes, it means the SNP.

Some critics of the SNP’s suitability for these debates have argued the Nats can’t be included because they are not standing in every seat in the country. Well, that’s correct – but neither are the Greens. The Greens are going to put up candidates in only about half of Scotland’s seats. Ukip hasn’t made its position clear yet – but it is unlikely to have any more candidates than the Greens north of the Border.

Why should Mr Farage get a place in the debate when some voters won’t have the chance to vote for his party, yet the SNP is excluded for that very reason?

It is true the SNP is not putting up candidates across huge swathes of the UK but this is offset by the fact it is twice the size – twice the size – of the UK Liberal Democrat Party and has more members than the UK Green Party and Ukip combined.

Excluding the third biggest party in the UK will also add to the sense of grievance many Nationalists still nurture towards what they see as the Westminster-dominated media establishment – and that will fuel the SNP vote, not quell it.

But there is, I believe, a much more interesting question at the heart of the SNP’s demands to be included in the debates and it is this – who would the party put up for the role?

Miss Sturgeon is First Minister and leader of the SNP, yet she cannot realistically take part because she is not standing for election to Westminster.

Angus Robertson is the SNP Westminster leader, so should he be the one to stand by the podium and look statesmanlike.

YET Mr Robertson is outranked by Stewart Hosie, who is now deputy leader of the SNP and also standing for Westminster. But all this ignores the elephant in the room: the big, kilt-wearing, former first ministerial pachyderm that is Mr Salmond – who is, of course, also standing for Westminster again. Can anyone seriously imagine him standing meekly by and allowing someone else to take part in a televised debate that may attract an audience of 22 million or more?

Not known as a shrinking violet, Mr Salmond is not likely to pass up this amount of public exposure without a fight – and the chance to debate with the Prime Minister is something he has desired for years.

That internal wrangle is going to be a delightful little battle to watch from the outside. But before we get to that, the SNP has to be invited to take part. Unfortunately, there is little sign of that happening just yet.

The Nationalists are threatening legal action but really, they shouldn’t have to.

The broadcasters have to decide whether or not these are prime ministerial debates. If they are, everyone should excluded except the two candidates for the job.

If they are not, all the major political parties – including the SNP – should take part.

It really should be as simple and as straightforward as that.