Ed Miliband was ridiculed yesterday for his plan to pass a law guaranteeing that television debates will take place in the run-up to future elections. The Labour leader claimed the move would ensure ‘once and for all, that these debates belong to the people’. But the plan was criticised by all sides, with former SNP leader Alex Salmond asking whether David Cameron would be jailed at Wandsworth prison for failing to take part. Ed Miliband was ridiculed yesterday for his plan to pass a law guaranteeing that television debates will take place in the run-up to future elections . He told BBC Radio 4: ‘Could you actually pass a law which says that somebody has to turn up at a TV debate? ‘What do you do when David Cameron doesn’t turn up? Shall we stick him in the clink, do we put him in Wandsworth?’ Labour’s launch of the proposed law was designed to keep up pressure on Mr Cameron over his refusal to comply with broadcasters’ plans for three TV debates during the election campaign. Last week Downing Street said he would attend only one, before the start of the formal campaign at the end of March. This would avoid the debates dominating the entire campaign, something Mr Cameron has been warning about for several years. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said: ‘Frankly I think the broadcasters have made a real hash of this because the processes and discussions have been going on for months.’ She told Sky’s Murnaghan show: ‘They invited this party and that party. The Prime Minister has made a very clear offer – get seven parties in the same place, have a 90-minute debate before the campaign starts. The plan was criticised by all sides, with former SNP leader Alex Salmond asking whether David Cameron would be jailed at Wandsworth prison for failing to take part . ‘Otherwise, all we are doing all the way through the campaign itself is talking about the debates.’ Labour said putting the debates on a statutory footing would prevent the recent rows about when they should take place and which parties would be involved. The system would work on similar lines to the current rules for planning the number, length and timing of party political broadcasts, Labour officials said. This means that parties would be consulted but not given the right to veto. The Broadcasters’ Liaison Group would become a recognised legal body for deciding the debates’ dates, format, volume and who was attending. Mr Miliband said: ‘In recent days the British public has been treated to the unedifying and tawdry spectacle of a prime minister seeking to duck out of the TV debates he once claimed to support with great enthusiasm.’ On BBC Radio 4, Mr Salmond, right, asked: ‘What do you do when David Cameron doesn’t turn up? Shall we stick him in the clink, do we put him in Wandsworth?’ He told the Observer that the broadcasters had ‘made it clear they would not be cowed by his tactics but it is wrong for them and the British public to have governing parties use this kind of pressure in campaign periods. It is time to ensure, once and for all, that these debates belong to the people, not the prime minister of the day.’ Labour said it would set a deadline of 2017 for changes to be put in place ahead of the proposed 2020 election. The party’s deputy leader Harriet Harman told Sky News that Labour would bring in a legal framework ‘like there is for the party election broadcasts, like there is for the rules on election spending and the election campaign’. She added that this would avoid ‘the broadcasters working together on an ad-hoc basis and David Cameron just ducking and weaving’.
Labour leader claimed move would ensure 'debates belong to the people’
Plan was criticised by all sides including former SNP leader Alex Salmond . Idea was supposed to mount pressure on PM over refusal to comply with broadcasters’ plans for three TV debates .