ITV has misjudged the public mood. Brits need to hear from Jo Swinson.

Back in 2010, when the UK first held televised election debates between party leaders, I was a young, keen, Lib Dem activist (I’m feeling much better now, thanks for asking). As I was running communications for the Lib Dems’ youth wing at the time, I found myself in party HQ in Cowley Street, Westminster during the the first ‘I agree with Nick’ debate. As it came to the end, the ceiling started shaking as cheers emanated from the office occupied by a number of senior staff. They knew how well their man had done, what a breakthrough moment it had been. That debate changed the entire campaign and, despite the loss of some seats, ultimately helped propel the Liberal Democrats into government.

It is the memory of that night, as much as anything else, that drives the Lib Dems’ determination to have their leader on the stage during any TV debates. They have  reacted with fury after ITV decided to host one head-to-head clash between Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson, as well as a seven-way battle royal between all the party leaders at a later date.

Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson insists she is a candidate for Prime Minister like Corbyn and Johnson, and therefore should be included alongside the two men. The party is even threatening to take legal action if the decision is not reversed. It feels that given Brexit is the central issue of the election and, it argues, both other parties want to leave the EU, a full gamut of views will not be aired in that debate. A source close to Swinson told TheArticle “The idea you have a debate between two people who support Brexit is ludicrous. Remainers would be better off changing the channel, as they won’t hear their views on that debate stage.”

ITV has, unsurprisingly, defended its position. In a letter to Lib Dem party President Baroness Sal Brinton, ITV Director of News and Current Affairs, Michael Jermey pointed out that Swinson will feature in one of a series of half-an-hour ‘Tonight’ programmes on the channel. He added that “across two hours of broadcasting” on 19 November “viewers will be able to hear directly from six parties on network television” (plus Plaid Cymru in Wales) – there is an additional programme following the head-to-head debate featuring their leaders or senior representatives.

Jermey also pushed back against any accusations of sexism, which Swinson has indicated may be part of the reason for her absence. “We agree that female roles are important” he wrote, “but our invitations to the leader have been issues on the basis of the parties they lead, rather than the personal characteristics of the leader.”

ITV has made an error in not having Swinson on the debate stage. The Lib Dem stock is rising. They may only have 20 MPs currently, but they are standing across Great Britain and polling pretty well. The latest YouGov tracker has the party at 16 per cent. For reference, the Brexit Party, is polling on seven per cent and the Green Party on four per cent. The Lib Dems are an unambiguous, national, Remain party, one that could conceivably be in government in some form or another by Christmas. The public deserves as many opportunities as possible to scrutinise their leader.

YouGov also found that 53 per cent of Brits feel that Swinson should be included in television debates. In uncertain times, people don’t just want to be presented with old-fashioned two-party politics. The public-service broadcaster has misjudged public mood. Sky News, never slow to capitalise on an error from an opponent, has invited Swinson to debate Johnson and Corbyn.

The debate about the debates is always one of the more tedious aspects of an election campaign. However, as we saw in 2010, these set piece media moments do matter. The public need the same opportunity to be introduced to Jo Swinson in 2019 as they were given with Nick Clegg nearly a decade ago. ITV should not be preventing that.