SNP leadership contest: Rivals back media access to hustings

The three contenders are Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf

The three candidates running to replace Nicola Sturgeon have backed calls to allow journalists access to hustings.

It came after the SNP said the events to choose its next leader would be held behind closed doors.

The BBC, STV, ITN and Sky joined together to challenge the SNP's decision to prevent media access.

After widespread criticism of the decision, the SNP later said it was "working with media outlets" which had asked to view proceedings.

Nine events are planned over the coming weeks for party members to hear from Ash Regan, Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf.

The party initially said these will be a media-free "safe space" for members to ask questions of the candidates.

But the move was criticised by opposition parties and The Society of Editors, which called the decision "outrageous" given the contest will also decide the next first minister.

Dawn Alford, its executive director, said there was "a clear and unequivocal public interest" in the media's ability to report on the hustings to "provide proper scrutiny of the candidates for the benefit of the public".

She called on the SNP's national executive committee (NEC), which is organising the leadership contest, to reverse the decision.

And all three candidates said journalists should be allowed access to the events.

• Who will replace Nicola Sturgeon?

• Regan, Forbes and Yousaf to contest SNP leadership

Finance Secretary Ms Forbes also called for the events to be streamed live to allow party members and the general public to watch.

"I don't believe any of the candidates have anything to hide, in fact it would give us a platform to set a positive example for how to have respectful, informed and varied debate," she said.

A spokesman for Mr Yousaf said "he has no problem with the media seeing any of the hustings", adding that he had already signed up to TV debates during the leadership campaign to allow non-members to "see why Humza is the top candidate to become Scotland's first minister", but, ultimately, said the decision was one for the NEC.

Ms Regan said: "As candidates, we have a duty to be held to scrutiny.

"I firmly believe we should allow access and ask that the media carry the proceedings fairly and fully - making them available to all."

The first of the nine planned hustings is scheduled to take place at Cumbernauld Theatre on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the NEC said: "We are in discussion with media outlets making a request for access to our members' hustings event in Cumbernauld, and we're already looking at ways to make content available to our wider membership for the remainder of this series of events."

A Conservative leadership hustings, held in Perth last August, was open to the media

The Scottish Conservatives called the media blackout of the hustings "cowardly and paranoid", saying it was a "misguided decision that the SNP should rethink urgently".

"The SNP are desperate for their internal civil war to be conducted in private, rather than airing their dirty linen in public," added party chairman Craig Hoy.

"This is nothing short of a disgrace when a new SNP leader - and ultimately first minister - will be in place in just a few weeks' time."

Labour MP Ian Murray said it was "vital that proper scrutiny takes place in a transparent contest".

In an open letter to SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, Mr Murray pointed out that "even the Tory leadership election last year allowed the press and public to participate".

"It is completely unacceptable that such an important contest can be conducted in secrecy, with the people of Scotland given no say whatsoever in choosing their next leader," he added.

An SNP spokesman had earlier defended the decision to bar media access, saying party members were "the lifeblood of our party and our movement".

"It is the members who will be voting for the next leader of the party, so the SNP NEC has designed the party hustings as a safe space for members to ask questions of the three candidates," the spokesman added.

Meanwhile, Business Minister Ivan McKee is no longer running Ms Forbes' leadership campaign.

Mr McKee, who was one of the finance secretary's earliest and most prominent backers, is understood to have stepped back from the role due to his ministerial commitments.

Ms Forbes' campaign is now being managed by SNP backbench MSP Michelle Thomson.

Ms Forbes, Ms Regan and Mr Yousaf are competing to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader and first minister.

The ballot of SNP members, which will use a single transferrable vote system, opens on 13 March and the winner will be announced on 27 March.