General election 2019: SNP to take legal action over ITV election debate

The SNP is to take legal action against ITV over its exclusion from the broadcaster’s general election debate.

ITV plans to show a head-to-head debate between Conservative leader Boris Johnson and his Labour counterpart Jeremy Corbyn next week.

But SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said it was “fundamentally unfair” to not include her party, which is the third-largest in the UK.

The Lib Dems have already launched a legal challenge to ITV’s plan.

Ms Sturgeon said the decision to only invite Mr Johnson and Mr Corbyn to take part in the televised debate on 19 November “fails to recognise that the UK is no longer a two party state”.

She added: “”The SNP is the third party in terms of Commons representation in the last Parliament, we are the governing party of Scotland and we are one of the biggest political parties in the whole of the UK in terms of membership.

“It is also entirely possible that we will hold the balance of power in the House of Commons after this election – making it all the more important that our perspective is heard and indeed scrutinised.

“To exclude the SNP would be a fundamental breach of broadcasters’ obligations to fully and properly represent and reflect the views of the whole UK.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

If you want to receive Breaking News alerts via email, or on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App then details on how to do so are available on this help page. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts.