MPs to discuss TV debates petition today
The Sky News campaign - backed by close to 135,000 people - will be debated in parliament today.
Monday 7 January 2019 00:21, UK
MPs will return from their Christmas break today to have their say on Sky News' campaign for an independent commission to organise TV election debates before UK elections.
On the first day the House of Commons sits in the New Year, a parliamentary debate will be held to discuss the proposal.
MPs will be given the opportunity to quiz a government minister on the campaign, which has been supported by senior politicians and more than 130,000 members of the public.
Voters can make sure their voice is heard by getting in touch with their local MP and urging them to attend the debate, which will start at 4.30pm in parliament's Westminster Hall.
:: You can watch the debate in full and live on Sky News and Sky News mobile.
Sky News' campaign was granted parliamentary time after a petition calling for party leaders to be forced to take part in TV debates reached 100,000 signatures last year.
It has since reached close to 135,000 signatures.
Steve Double, Conservative MP for St Austell and Newquay and a member of parliament's petitions committee, will open the debate.
Many senior politicians have already backed the campaign - including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Conservatives' Amber Rudd and Boris Johnson, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable, and SNP MPs and the Green Party.
The Electoral Reform Society, businessman Theo Paphitis and Ian Hislop, the editor of satirical magazine Private Eye, are also in favour of an independent commission.
A government spokesperson, obliged to respond to the petition when it reached 10,000 signatures, said the issue of TV debates was "a matter for political parties" and should be considered "closer to any general election in 2022".
They added: "The government has no plans to change electoral law to make the debates mandatory."
Sky News' editor-at-large Adam Boulton has said a "respected debates commission is needed to ensure fairness for all sides when debates involving the prime minister take place".
He said the row over a proposed televised debate between Mrs May and Mr Corbyn on the Brexit deal had "turbocharged" the campaign.
No such debate took place after the two leaders failed to agree on a format.
"The general election debates commission we are proposing would not necessarily be called in outside elections and, probably, for referendums," he said.
"But we believe it would quickly prove itself as a trusty authority to lean on. Please keep signing the petition and recruiting your friends and family.
"The more people who pile in, the greater the pressure on the government will be."