BBC sparks outrage as Scottish Tory chief hits out at interview ‘ultimatum’ | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Scottish Tory chief Douglas Ross hit out on the BBC in a row over an interview on its Sunday morning politics programme.

The Moray MP mentioned he was unable to seem reside on The Sunday Show this morning as a result of household commitments and had requested to pre-record the interview yesterday.

But he mentioned he was advised the interview following the Scottish Conservative convention may solely happen on Sunday morning and left with an “ultimatum” to “choose between my family or their interview”.

In a prolonged assertion on X, Mr Ross mentioned: “Today there will be no Scottish Conservative appearing on The Sunday Show after the BBC refused to pre-record their leader’s interview with me following our party conference in Aberdeen yesterday.

“We have been in dialogue with the BBC about this for various weeks.

“This morning my wife started her day shift with Police Scotland at 7am, I’m therefore looking after our boys aged four and two.

“There was merely no alternative to do the interview this morning which is why we requested Saturday afternoon.

“I had hoped given these family commitments that BBC would have been flexible on their approach, but they insisted the interview could only take place on Sunday morning.

“This is regardless of the BBC beforehand pre-recording interviews with SNP politicians. In latest months each Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes have been allowed to pre-record interviews within the days forward of broadcast on Sunday.”

Mr Ross said he was “proud” of his party’s conference and had “appeared ahead” to discussing it on the flagship programme.

He added: “However, the ultimatum from the BBC that I had to decide on between my household or their interview, was – in the long run – a straightforward resolution.

“As a husband and father, I treasure the limited family time I get away from politics and I’m sorry senior producers with the BBC could not understand or accept this.

“We all need to do what we are able to do encourage extra folks into politics, however this resolution by the BBC suggests we nonetheless have some approach to go to make sure folks perceive the household pressures of balancing being a politician and a dad or mum.”

Other Scottish Conservatives also criticised the BBC over the move.

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: “This appears notably poor from BBC Scotland News given they’ve beforehand agreed to interview Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes as pre-records to be performed out on a Sunday.”

Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk MP John Lamont added that it was “inexcusable from the BBC”.

A BBC spokesperson mentioned: “The Sunday Show always conducts party conference interviews on the day of transmission, although we are flexible about location and time.

“In the interests of fairness and consistency we made this offer to Mr Ross or another representative from the Scottish Conservatives but that offer was not accepted.”