Parties frozen out of UK election debates

A High Court ruling has left Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats fuming, with debates restricted to just Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

Journalist Julie Etchingham will conduct the televised debate between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Picture: Getty Images

British broadcasters are allowed to restrict a televised election debate to just the Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the High Court has ruled.

Scottish nationalists and the Liberal Democrats have been left incandescent that their respective leaders, Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson, have been sidelined from the head-to-head debate, which will be shown on ITV on Wednesday morning AEST. Another leader’s debate on Sky News is also being planned before the December 12 general election.

The Liberal Democrats had insisted that Ms Swinson needed to be on the debate panel to represent the “voice of Remain” in the highly-charged Brexit issue.

They took the battle to the High Court in London to force the broadcasters to acquiesce, but Lord Justice Nigel Davis and Justice Mark Warby ruled that even if the court had jurisdiction to deal with the case, the format of election debates was “editorial judgement”.

British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson, right, and Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn will face off in televised debates. Picture: AFP

Lord Davis said there was no arguable breach of the Broadcasting Code, however the aggrieved parties could complain to the regular Ofcom once the television program had been aired.

He added: “The clear conclusion of both members of this court is that, viewed overall, these claims are not realistically arguable.

“It follows that the television debate scheduled for tomorrow evening between the leader of the Conservative Party and the leader of the Labour Party may lawfully go ahead.”

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran tweeted: “The court ruled against us. But the fight must continue.

“It’s simply wrong of broadcasters to present a binary choice and pre-empt the decision of the people in a general election.”

SNP leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, said the court’s decision to exclude the SNP is to discriminate against Scottish voters and effectively rest them as second class citizens.

He said: “It was already clear that the Westminster political system is utterly broken and incapable of properly representing Scotland’s interests. What is now clear is that the UK broadcasting system is similarly incapable.”