JO Swinson distanced her party’s TV debate legal challenge from that of the SNP yesterday.
The LibDems are to pursue court action over their lock-out from a televised leaders’ debate by ITV.
And the SNP have announced similar action against the broadcaster, claiming Nicola Sturgeon should also be included. Sturgeon said the Tory-Labour set-up would give those parties “an inbuilt and unfair advantage” and ignore her party even though it may “hold the balance of power in the House of Commons after this election”.
She stated: “We will be arguing not just for the SNP but for other parties to have a place in this debate as well, just as was the case in the ITV leaders’ debate of 2015.
“The era of two-party dominance of UK elections is fading fast, and it is incumbent on broadcasters to recognise that and to act accordingly.”
READ MORE: Sturgeon confirms ITV debate omission legal action over 'unfair' snub
But, on a visit to Glasgow yesterday, Swinson said her party’s position is “not the same”. Saying that Sturgeon “can make her own case”, Swinson stated: “I would say very clearly that the Liberal Democrats are standing right across Great Britain, we are fielding candidates, we have a chance of forming the next government.
“That’s obviously not the same for the SNP so I think the issues are different, the SNP will make their own case, but our legal action is very clear – we are the strongest, biggest party of Remain and we deserve to be in those debates.”
She also stated: “We believe it’s absolutely unacceptable for the voice of millions of people in this country who want to remain in the European Union to be excluded from those debates.
READ MORE: Shona Craven: Brazening it out on TV won't propel Jo Swinson into Number 10
“It’s not a debate if you just have Leave debating Leave. The voice of Remain needs to be there and that’s why we’re taking that to court for myself, as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, to be represented in those debates.”
The comments came on a visit to the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, where Swinson said her party would act to stop Brexit on its first day in office.
Outlining priorities for some matters under the control of devolved parliaments, she said: “We want to remain in the European Union.
“We are an internationalist party and so a Liberal Democrat majority government would revoke Article 50 on day one.
“We could stop Brexit and get on with building a brighter future, which would be more money for our NHS, in particular our mental health services, more money to give children the best start in life in our schools and helping more parents with the unaffordable costs of childcare, as well as tackling the climate emergency so that we can protect this beautiful and wonderful planet that we have and hand it on to the next generation, and not polluted and damaged. There’s a huge amount of priorities we want to be getting on to dealing with.”
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