David Cameron Conservative Ed Miliband Labour Nick Clegg Liberal Democrats Nigel Farage UKIP Natalie Bennett Green (E&W) Nicola Sturgeon SNP Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru ← 2010 debates 2015 2017 debates →
The 2015 United Kingdom general election debates were a series of four live television programmes featuring the leaders of seven main British parties that took place during the run-up to the general election. They each featured different formats and participants.
The first was a one-on-one programme between David Cameron, Prime Minister (Conservative Party), and Ed Miliband, Leader of the Opposition (Labour Party). The second featured Cameron, Miliband, Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister (Liberal Democrats), Nigel Farage (UKIP), Natalie Bennett (Green Party of England and Wales), Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland (SNP), and Leanne Wood (Plaid Cymru). The third debate featured the leaders of the five opposition parties: Miliband, Farage, Bennett, Sturgeon, and Wood. The final programme's participants were Cameron, Miliband, and Clegg. Only the Labour Party's Miliband participated in all four events.
The formats and participants were arrived at after a lengthy process. Following the result of the election, a survey of 3,019 people, carried out by Panelbase, found that 38% of voters considered the debates to have influenced their voting intention.Otherlines.tv PDF file
Background The first series of televised leaders' debates in the United Kingdom were held in the previous election. Broadcasters proposed another series of televised debates in the run up to the 2015 election, although in a different format. The suggestion was that the debates should take place during the early stages of the campaign, before April. Cameron suggested that the televised debates should take place before the campaign itself, as he felt that the 2010 debates overshadowed the rest of the campaign; he was, however, still positive towards them taking place.
There was media speculation from individuals such as Michael Crick of Channel 4 News as to who may be included in the debates. He suggested that if UKIP did not receive sufficient coverage, they could make a legal case against broadcasters that under-represent the party, if the leaders of the Conservative Party, Labour Party and Liberal Democrats are included. Prime Minister David Cameron had dismissed the call for UKIP's participation. The Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband said in January 2013 that the composition of each debate was a matter for the media organisations.
In the run-up to the European Parliament election, 2014, there were two debates between the leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg and the UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage. According to polling, Mr Farage is reported to have comfortably won both debates and this prompted further speculation that Farage could or should be invited to take part in the debates ahead of the general election. UKIP won the European elections, topping the poll. This further strengthened Farage's case and increased calls for UKIP to be represented in such TV debates.
In October 2014, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky News announced joint plans for three debates, one with just the leaders of the Conservative and Labour parties, a second also including the Liberal Democrats, and a third including UKIP. Several other parties represented in the Commons complained at their exclusion from this plan. On 30 October the Green Party were informed by the BBC that their requests to be included in TV debates was rejected. However, the Green Party did not give up, and were boosted by the existence of a petition in support of their inclusion with over 275,000 signatures.
David Cameron then said that he would not take part unless the Greens did. As a result of this combined pressure, ITV and the BBC published revised plans in January 2015, including the Greens, as well as the SNP and Plaid Cymru (who only stand in Scotland and Wales respectively). Many of the Northern Irish political parties then made statements requesting their inclusion in the debates. Sinn Féin sought legal advice, while the Democratic Unionist Party wrote to the BBC and ITV demanding their inclusion. George Galloway, the sole MP for the Respect Party, also argued for his inclusion, on the basis that Respect then had the same number of MPs as the Greens. The DUP's formal complaint was rejected by the BBC.
Planning and negotiations
Early proposals and arrangements On 9 May 2014—almost exactly a year before the election date—David Cameron proposed a five-way debate, with the leaders of "all the main parties". This would be followed up by a separate "head to head" debate between himself and Labour's Ed Miliband. This itself was an adjustment from an earlier proposal of Cameron for three debates.
During October that year, all four main broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky announced joint plans for multi-platform party leader debates in the run up to the 2015 general election. Three debates would have taken place within the six-week campaign period, at a time when the parties were to be setting out their policies, to help further engage the audience with the election. The proposal entailed debates at fortnightly intervals on 2 April, 16 April and 30 April at locations around the UK.
The First Debate was to be a "head to head" debate between David Cameron and Ed Miliband. The Second Debate was to follow the pattern of the 2010 debates, between the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders. The third Debate would have had the Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and UKIP leaders. In January 2015, ITV and the BBC published revised plans for the television election debates to include seven main UK political parties' leaders. The revised proposals would see the debates being held on Thursdays: 2, 16, and 30 April 2015, during the general election campaign.
The proposals issued were for: Two seven-way debates including representatives of the Conservative Party, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru one hosted by BBC, and the other by ITV. A debate that would be 'head-to-head' between David Cameron and Ed Miliband, jointly hosted by Channel 4 and Sky.
Warnings were given from all the broadcasters that if the leaders failed to turn up an 'empty chair' would be used instead.
On 23 February 2015, the broadcasters agreed on three debates:
2 April: ITV - Debate between the party leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the SNP, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru. 16 April: BBC - A second debate between the seven party leaders above. 30 April: Sky and Channel 4 - Head-to-head debate between the Leader of the Conservative Party and the Leader of the Labour Party.
March 2015 On 4 March 2015 David Cameron stated, in what was described as a "final offer", that he would only participate in a single debate, involving the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the SNP, the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and possibly the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). He also said that the debate must occur before the start of the short campaign, i.e. before 30 March 2015. His announcement effectively ruled out the proposed one on one debate between Ed Miliband and the Prime Minister, and raised the prospect of Cameron being "empty chaired" in debates involving other party leaders but not him. On 6 March, the broadcasters confirmed that they intended to go ahead with all three debates. In response to the possibility of Cameron being "empty chaired", Ofcom warned that broadcasters had to be careful about impartiality rules.
The Telegraph and The Guardian, in association with Google and YouTube, then announced that they intended to hold an internet-broadcast live debate, which was planned to feature David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage, and Natalie Bennett, and had issued an invitation to the five party leaders. The debate was to be held on 26 or 27 March (before the short campaign, as favoured by the Conservatives). The Liberal Democrats nominally expressed their intention to participate; however there was concern that the absence of the SNP might prove to be an obstacle. UKIP categorically agreed to participate. Conservative chairman Grant Shapps expressed that he was in favour. However, without any formal agreement forthcoming, the organisers wrote to David Cameron on 17 March asking for his commitment. The debate did not take place.
That day, the Conservatives accepted the offer of a single, 7-way debate to be broadcast on ITV on 2 April, with the other two planned debates cancelled. According to the Conservatives, they were approached with a new 4-programme plan, which was reported to be:
26 March on Sky/Channel 4: Leaders' interviews with Cameron and Miliband interviewed sequentially by Jeremy Paxman, with studio audience. 2 April on ITV: Debate with the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru and DUP. 16 April: Debate with the "challenger parties", i.e. SNP, UKIP, Plaid Cymru, Greens and DUP. 30 April on BBC: Question Time with Cameron, Miliband and Clegg taking questions from audience sequentially.
The Liberal Democrats accepted these proposals, but Nick Clegg has said he still hoped for a four-way leaders debate involving the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and UKIP (as the four main parties as defined by Ofcom). However, Labour and UKIP responded that they are only aware of the prior proposal from the broadcasters for three debates, which they still supported. The SNP, likewise, called on Cameron to take part in the three debates previously proposed. Commentators argued that the new proposed format would be better for the Conservatives than having three debates including a head-to-head with Miliband.
Negotiations continued, with the broadcasters offering to include Labour in the 16 April debate. A final settlement was reached on 21 March. The agreed schedule was only a slight modification of the 17 March proposal, with the "challenger party" debates now featuring Ed Miliband instead of a representative from the DUP, with resistance from the DUP. The final plan was thus:
26 March on Sky/Channel 4: Leaders' interviews, with Cameron and Miliband interviewed sequentially by Paxman, with a studio audience. 2 April on ITV: Debate with the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, UKIP, Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru chaired by Julie Etchingham. 16 April on BBC: Debate with the "challenger parties", i.e. Labour, UKIP, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Greens, chaired by David Dimbleby. 30 April on BBC: Question Time with Cameron, Miliband and Clegg taking questions from the audience sequentially, chaired by Dimbleby.
Impact The controversies around the initial planned exclusion of the Greens from the debates coincided with rapid increases in membership of the Green parties, and increase in their opinion poll ratings. The party referred to this increase as "The Green Surge", their membership surpassing that of UKIP or the Liberal Democrats by mid-January.
Cameron & Miliband: The Battle for Number 10 (26 March) Channel 4, Sky and the BBC News Channel broadcast the first programme on 26 March. Miliband, having won the toss, chose to go second, so this programme consisted of Jeremy Paxman interviewing Cameron, Cameron facing questions from a studio audience (moderated by Kay Burley), Miliband facing the audience, and finally Paxman interviewing Miliband.
The programme was recorded in Studios 4 & 5 at Sky Studios in Isleworth.
Response Average viewing figures for the show were 2.6 million on Channel 4 (11.7% of the TV audience) and 322,000 on Sky News. Several hundred complaints were received by Channel 4 and Ofcom claiming the programme was biased against Miliband.