General Election 2010: Salmond in U-turn over final TV debate

Published on Saturday 1 May 2010 20:22

ALEX Salmond has announced he will, after all, take part in a Scottish leaders' debate to be staged by the BBC tonight.

In a U-turn following the SNP's court defeat last week over being included in the UK party leaders' debates, the First Minister declared yesterday he is to replace the party's Westminster leader, Angus Robertson, as the Nationalist representative on the programme.

It comes only three weeks after the party said that Robertson would be putting the SNP case. The party explained yesterday that Salmond had decided to replace Robertson because his attempts to get a podium place on the UK-wide debates had failed.

But the move led both Labour and the Conservatives to claim the Nationalists were in "sheer panic" over their election strategy, saying Robertson was being treated like a "doormat".

Tonight's debate, to be broadcast on BBC One at 9pm, will be the final time party leaders go head to head before Thursday's election. Salmond agreed to take part in a similar debate broadcast by Sky last Sunday morning, after the station agreed to show it across the whole of the UK.

But with the SNP launching an attack on the BBC over its decision to press ahead with a UK-wide debate without a Nationalist representative, Robertson was pencilled in to head up the Scottish debate.

Now, even though he is not standing at the election, Salmond will take his place alongside Labour's Jim Murphy, Conservative David Mundell and the Liberal Democrat Alistair Carmichael. Salmond also announced yesterday that he would be embarking on a "whistlestop tour" of marginal Labour seats.

He issued a call to Scottish voters who were thinking of voting Labour to keep a Tory government out of Westminster, claiming that with the polls pointing to a clear Labour loss, their hopes were effectively over.

The First Minister said: "The whole basis of Labour's campaign in Scotland has unravelled as their campaign collapses south of the Border and voters desert them."

He added: "Their entire strategy in Scotland has been based on stopping the Tories by returning a Labour government at Westminster, but now they are obviously a busted flush at UK level their Scottish vote is vulnerable."

Despite today's Scotland on Sunday poll, which puts the Lib Dems ahead of the SNP in second place, Salmond said the Nationalists were the main challenge in Scotland to Labour.

But the move by Salmond to replace his Westminster leader on the debate tonight was seized on by opponents. Labour campaign manager Frank Roy said: "The SNP are in sheer panic. They have been desperate to be part of this election campaign, even though they are a minority party at Westminster."

A Scottish Conservative spokesman added: "This is a panic measure reflecting a shambolic SNP campaign and a last desperate throw of the dice from Alex Salmond."

The move by Salmond comes as all the parties engage in a final weekend of campaigning ahead of the election. The SNP is defending seven seats across Scotland, but Salmond last year set the party an ambitious target to win 20 across the country.

Party insiders privately concede they stand little chance of getting anywhere near that target. However, there are claims in the party that they stand a chance in individual seats, such as the Labour-held Edinburgh East. Insiders are less optimistic, however, about their chances in the crucial Labour marginal of Ochil.

The most optimistic noises, however, are coming from the Lib Dem camp amid a growing belief that it can win both Edinburgh South and Edinburgh North and Leith from Labour. Other key Scottish battlegrounds include Dundee West, where Labour is clinging on against the SNP, East Renfrewshire, where the Tories are continuing to pour in effort and resources in the hope of unseating Labour's Jim Murphy, and Dumfries and Galloway.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray is also to embark on a tour of key seats from tomorrow, including Ochil, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee and Dunfermline West.

He said: "The people of Scotland do not want the Tories back in power and they know that only Labour can stop David Cameron from becoming prime minister."