Make Debates Happen: TV election debates petition closes after sparking debate
Sky's Make Debates Happen campaign has attracted more than 140,000 expressions of support and sparked a debate in Parliament.
Thursday 21 March 2019 11:41, UK
A Sky News petition to make televised debates a regular fixture of general election campaigns is closing today, having attracted more than 140,000 signatures and sparked a debate in Parliament.
The Make Debates Happen campaign is calling for an independent commission to be formed to oversee televised election debates between party leaders.
It was launched last year,
The level of support triggered a debate involving MPs in January, with those in Westminster Hall hearing that the "genie is out of the bottle" on the issue.
Television debates are commonplace in many democracies, but in the UK they have only happened once, in 2010.
Before and since, negotiations over the topic have broken down between party leaders and broadcasters.
The idea of the commission is to take politics out of the discussions, as happens with the Commission on Presidential Debates in the US, where a TV debate has taken place in every election since 1976.
The campaign has been backed by senior politicians including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Conservatives Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson, and outgoing Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable.
SNP MPs and the Green Party have also supported it.
Conservative MP Peter Bone, a supporter of the campaign, tabled a private member's bill on the matter in the Commons last week.
The law would force leaders to take part in three TV debates during election campaigns, including two between the leaders of Labour and the Conservatives.
Mr Bone's General Election (Leaders' Debate) Bill includes plans for an independent commission to oversee the debates, a key part of Sky's campaign.
The co-sponsors of Mr Bone's Bill were the former TV presenter Esther McVey, a Tory cabinet minister until she quit over Brexit in November, and the veteran Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope.
In response to Sky's campaign, the government said an independent commission was not necessary.
Elections minister Chloe Smith told MPs during the Westminster Hall debate that the current system, which sees debates arranged by political parties and broadcasters, works adequately and delivers "fair and impartial" debates.
"I think we have heard a number of very good arguments on this topic, although I think they mainly focused to my ear, on the way that TV debates are good and helpful in themselves, rather than necessarily legislating for them to be the way forward," Ms Smith said.
This was reiterated by Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden when Mr Bone tabled his bill last week.
The MP for Wellingborough said the debate had made it clear that he had "more work to do to persuade the government" and therefore withdrew his bill.