Nigel Farage invited to join 2015 election leaders’ TV debate

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has been invited to take part in a televised debate with David Cameron, Ed Miliband, and Nick Clegg ahead of the 2015 general election.

There are plans for three televised debates between the leaders of Britain’s major political parties hosted by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky. The broadcasters have agreed that the streams of the debates will be available to other broadcasters to air, and there are plans to work with Facebook and Twitter to help the debates reach the greatest number of people possible ahead of the election on 7 May.

UKIP have dominated the political discussion over the last 12 months with a successful campaign in the European elections, but only gained their first Westminster MP last week after Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservatives.

Despite Caroline Lucas having won a seat in Westminster for the Greens in 2010 and the party often polled with a similar popularity to the Liberal Democrats in the polls, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has not been invited to join a televised debate with the other party leaders.

Format of 2015 election leaders’ TV debates

• David Cameron and Ed Miliband in head-to-head potential prime minister’s debate chaired by Jeremy Paxman and broadcast on Channel 4 and Sky (2 April)
• David Cameron, Ed Miliband, and Nick Clegg in debate chaired by David Dimbleby and broadcast by the BBC on television and radio (16 April)
• David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, and Nigel Farage in debate chaired by Julie Etchingham and broadcast by ITV (30 April)

The dates and times of the proposed debates are yet to be decided