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Scottish independence referendum: PM rejects Salmond's call for TV debate Scottish independence referendum: PM rejects Salmond's call for TV debate
(34 minutes later)
David Cameron has refused to go head to head with Alex Salmond in a televised debate on Scotland's independence referendum. David Cameron has ruled out staging a televised debate on Scottish independence with Alex Salmond, accusing the first minister of trying to deflect attention from his weak proposals for leaving the UK.
The prime minister said the issue was a matter for "Scots living in Scotland" and should not become a glorified general election, he said in a letter to Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister. Cameron said Salmond was seeking to portray the referendum debate as a contest between the SNP and the Conservative party.
Any TV debate should instead involve Alistair Darling, the Labour MP leading the Better Together campaign to keep Scotland in the UK, Cameron wrote. In a letter to Salmond, Cameron wrote: "I understand why you might wish to pursue a diversionary tactic. It is a convenient means of deflecting attention away from the real issues – the lack of credibility of your plans for a currency union, funding pensions and managing volatile oil revenues."
"It is a well understood and reasonable principle that you get to pick your own team's captain, but not your opponent's as well," the Tory leader wrote. Salmond stepped up his demands for the prime minister to face him in a live TV debate after the two men were made joint winners of a Political Studies Association award for negotiating the Edinburgh agreement to set up next year's referendum.
"I understand why you might wish to pursue a diversionary tactic. It is a convenient means of deflecting attention away from the real issues – the lack of credibility of your plans for a currency union, funding pensions and managing volatile oil revenues. Two weeks ago, Salmond issued a fresh challenge to Cameron, asking for a live debate on St Andrew's day this November, fuelling suspicions that would be timed to coincide with publication of the Scottish government's white paper on independence.
He accused the PM of running scared, asking: "If the prime minister is so confident about his case against independence, what has he got be afraid of?"
Cameron has now formally rejected that offer in a blunt letter to Salmond, released on the eve of the Conservatives' annual conference in Manchester, and said the first minister should instead face Alistair Darling, the leader of the pro-UK Better Together campaign.
The PM said Darling had been chosen by all three pro-UK parties – Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems – to be "captain" of their anti-independence team. They would decide who spoke for the campaign, not the first minister.
"It is entirely right for you to place yourself at the head of the 'yes' campaign, but not to decide who should lead for the 'no' campaign too," Cameron said. "It is a well understood and reasonable principle that you get to pick your own team's captain, but not your opponent's as well."
"You want the independence debate to be an argument between you and me; the Scottish government and UK government; the SNP and Conservative party – in fact anything rather than what it really is about. Nor is your argument with the rest of the United Kingdom, it is with the people in Scotland.""You want the independence debate to be an argument between you and me; the Scottish government and UK government; the SNP and Conservative party – in fact anything rather than what it really is about. Nor is your argument with the rest of the United Kingdom, it is with the people in Scotland."
The consequences of the vote on 18 September next year will be "irreversible" and be felt long after both politicians have retired from politics, he continued. Number 10 officials believe Salmond is guilty of double standards by repeatedly insisting that independence is solely for Scotland to decide and is a matter of Scottish sovereignty. But Salmond insists that Cameron has made himself central to the independence debate. He was cosignatory to the Edinburgh agreement.
"The referendum is therefore too important to be reduced to the status of some glorified general election," he wrote. "We can hardly accept a joint award for political engagement if we are not prepared to follow it through and conduct a debate in democratic terms as the two signatories of this agreement," Salmond said earlier this month. "According to the serious academics [who gave the award] this is the best thing since sliced bread."
"People should cast their vote in the knowledge that they are deciding not just for themselves, but also for their children, grandchildren and succeeding generations. Scottish officials also point out that Whitehall civil servants and UK ministers are playing a very prominent, active role in fighting the UK government's case against independence. Scores of Whitehall officials are working on a series of official papers attacking Salmond's plans.
"It is for people in Scotland to decide. And it is right for you and Alistair Darling – as the leaders of the respective campaigns, with votes to cast as well as votes to win – to debate head-to-head on TV." Pro-independence campaigners also argue that Salmond is not leader of the Yes Scotland campaign, which is the only group that is directly comparable to Better Together, but the head of the Scottish government. Yes Scotland's advisory board is chaired by ex-Labour MP Dennis Canavan, who would be Darling's most obvious opponent in a TV debate.
Cameron's formal decision follows repeated invitations from Salmond, who insists the prime minister is the most senior politician arguing for a no vote. Blair Jenkins, the chief executive of Yes Scotland and a former BBC TV news executive, also believes Salmond would win a TV debate because of his formidable debating skills. He said broadcasters would be delighted if Salmond and Cameron agreed to a live duel.
Jenkins told the Guardian: "Alex Salmond is an outstanding broadcasting performer; from where I'm sitting, that's a great advantage to us. As I look at the casting possibilities on the 'yes' side, I think that they're far greater than for the other side."
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