BBC sparks outrage as Scottish Tory leader hits out at 'ultimatum' in furious statement

Douglas Ross

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

The Moray MP said he was unable to appear live on The Sunday Show this morning due to family commitments and had asked to pre-record the interview yesterday.

But he said he was told the interview following the Scottish Conservative conference could only take place on Sunday morning and left with an “ultimatum” to “choose between my family or their interview”.

In a lengthy statement on X, Mr Ross said: “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 discussion with the BBC about this for a number of 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 simply no opportunity 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 despite the BBC previously pre-recording interviews with SNP politicians. In recent months both Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes have been allowed to pre-record interviews in the days ahead of broadcast on Sunday.”

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

He added: “However, the ultimatum from the BBC that I had to choose between my family or their interview, was – in the end – an easy decision.

“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 want to do what we can do encourage more people into politics, but this decision by the BBC suggests we still have some way to go to ensure people understand the family pressures of balancing being a politician and a parent.”

Other Scottish Conservatives also criticised the BBC over the move.

Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: “This seems particularly poor from BBC Scotland News given they have previously agreed to interview Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes as pre-records to be played out on a Sunday.”

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

A BBC spokesperson said: “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.”