by Douglas Ross accused the BBC of bias after he was not allowed to pre-record a TV interview so he could take care of his infant children, but SNP ministers were.
The Scottish Tory leader said the broadcaster’s flagship Sunday Show refused to give an interview on the schedule after his party conference to include his police officer wife going on shift at 7am.
In a lengthy statement published online, he revealed that the program 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 interviewing them” and it was an “easy decision” as a husband and father to choose the former.
The Sunday Show is broadcast live at 10am on Sundays on BBC One Scotland and usually features interviews with Scottish political party leaders at the weekend of their respective party conferences.
However, the main interview last Sunday was with Shona Robison, Deputy First Minister of the SNP.
Martin Geissler told the audience that Mr Ross was “unavailable due to childcare issues” and no other senior party representative 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 did not explain why this was necessary.
Tory insiders said that the BBC knew for weeks about Mrs. Ross’s change of police, but refused requests to interview him on Saturday at the Aberdeen conference, despite the presence of “hoards” of journalists.
Mr Ross, who is also a Dáil 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 appear on the program after the BBC refused to pre-record the interview.
“We have been in discussions with the BBC about this for several weeks. This morning my wife started her day shift with Police Scotland at 7am, so I’m looking after our two boys aged four and two,” he said.
“There was no opportunity to do the interview this morning and that’s why we asked for Saturday afternoon.
“I had hoped that given these family commitments the BBC would be flexible in their approach, but they insisted that the interview could only be done on Sunday morning.
“This is despite the BBC having previously conducted interviews with SNP politicians. In recent months Humza Yousaf and Kate Forbes have been allowed to pre-record interviews in the days leading up to the Sunday broadcast.”
The March 5, 2023 edition of the show, which is still available on BBC iPlayer, featured a pre-recorded interview with Ms Forbes, who was standing for the SNP leadership.
Mr Geissler introduced the item, saying: “Yesterday, she was out on the stump in Inverness, where she took time to speak to me.”
Mr Ross said he was looking forward to appearing on the program to discuss the conference, which took place on Friday and Saturday.
But he said: “As a husband and father, I appreciate the limited family time I get away from politics and I regret that senior BBC producers could not understand or accept this.”
Mr Ross concluded: “We all want to do our best to get more people into politics, but this decision by the BBC shows that we still have a way to go to make sure people understand the family pressures of balancing being a politician and a parent. “
Mr Geissler asked Ms Robison in their interview if she was looking forward to covering for Mr Yousaf while he was on paternity leave.
The First Minister and his wife announced on Friday that they were expecting a child.
Former Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson tweeted: “This seems particularly poor from @BBCScotlandNews as they have already agreed to interview @HumzaYousaf and @_KateForbes as preliminary records to be released on Sunday.”
‘A clear cut case of double standards’
Craig Hoy, chairman of the Scottish Tories, tweeted during the programme: “Very poor – and very worrying – editorial decision by the BBC. This is a clear case of double standards and before they go on air Martin and the @BBCScotlandNews team on the Sunday Show need to explain how this happened.”
He later said: “On the same program they asked Shona Robison if she was looking forward to covering the Prime Minister while he was on paternity leave, the BBC failed to explain why they refused to pre-record Douglas Ross. let him know. able to take care of his two boys today. Poor BBC show.”
A BBC spokesman said: “The Sunday Show always conducts party conference interviews on the day of transmission, although we are flexible on venue and time.
“For the sake of fairness and consistency we made this offer to Mr Ross or another representative from the Scottish Conservatives but that offer was not accepted.”
