Scottish Tory leader accuses BBC of bias

Douglas Ross has accused the BBC of bias – Lesley Martin/Reuters

Douglas Ross has accused the BBC of bias after he was not allowed to pre-record a TV interview so he could look after his two infant children, but SNP ministers were.

The Scottish Tory leader said the broadcaster’s flagship Sunday Show refused to timetable an interview after his party conference to take into account his police officer wife going on shift at 7am.

In a lengthy statement published online, he pointed out that the programme had previously allowed the SNP’s Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes to pre-record interviews.

Mr Ross accused the BBC of forcing him to “choose between my family or their interview” and it was an “easy decision” as a husband and father to pick the former.

The Sunday Show is broadcast live at 10am on Sundays on BBC One Scotland and usually features interviews with Scotland’s political party leaders on the weekends of their respective party conferences.

However, the main interview this Sunday was instead with Shona Robison, the SNP Deputy First Minister.

The main interview this Sunday was instead with Shona Robison, the SNP Deputy First Minister – Andrew Milligan/PA

Martin Geissler told the audience Mr Ross was “unavailable due to child care issues” and no other senior representative of the party was made available. But he made no reference to the BBC refusing to pre-record the interview.

The Corporation later issued a statement saying that the Sunday Show always conducted its conference interviews “on the day of transmission,” but it did not explain why that was necessary.

Tory insiders said the BBC had known for weeks about Mrs Ross’s police shift, but had rejected requests to interview him on Saturday at the Aberdeen conference, despite having “hoards” of journalists present.

Mr Ross, who is also the Moray MP, has two sons, aged two and four. His wife, Krystle, is a Police Scotland officer.

In a statement on Twitter, he said no Scottish Tory would be appearing on the programme after the BBC refused to pre-record the interview.

“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 two boys aged four and two,” he said.

“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 the BBC would have been flexible in 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.”

Martin Geissler told the audience Mr Ross was ‘unavailable due to child care issues’ – Twitter

The March 5, 2023, edition of the show, still available on BBC iPlayer, featured a pre-recorded interview with Ms Forbes, who was standing for the SNP leadership.

Mr Geissler introduced the segment, saying: “Yesterday, she was out on the stump in Inverness, where she took time out to speak to me.”

Mr Ross said he had been looking forward to appearing on the programme to discuss the conference, which was held on Friday and Saturday.

But he said: “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.”

Mr Ross concluded: “We all want to do what we can to 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.”

Mr Geissler asked Ms Robison in their interview whether she was looking forward to covering for Mr Yousaf when he is on paternity leave.

The First Minister and his wife announced on Friday they were expecting a child.

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Tory leader, tweeted: “This seems particularly poor from  @‌BBCScotlandNews given they have previously agreed to interview @‌HumzaYousaf and @‌_KateForbes as pre-records to be played out on a Sunday.”

‘Clear cut case of double standards’

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory chairman, tweeted during the programme: “A very poor – and worrying – editorial decision by the BBC. This is a clear cut case of double standards and before they go off air Martin and the @‌BBCScotlandNews team on the Sunday Show must explain how this situation has come about.”

He later added: “On the same programme they asked Shona Robison if she was looking forward to covering for the First Minister when he is on paternity leave, the BBC failed to explain why they refused a pre-record to Douglas Ross in order that he could look after his two boys today. Poor show BBC.”

A BBC spokeswoman 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.”

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