Douglas Ross criticises BBC over 'ultimatum' to choose between family or interview

The Scottish Conservative leader hit out at the broadcaster on social media

Douglas Ross has criticised the BBC after it refused to allow him to pre-record an interview so he could look after his two children on Sunday morning.

The Scottish Conservative leader said the broadcaster had given him an “ultimatum” to “choose between my family or their interview”.

He said his wife, who is a police officer, had started her shift at 7am and he therefore had to look after their two sons, aged four and two.

Douglas Ross

Mr Ross said he had been looking forward to discussing his party’s conference in Aberdeen, which took place over Friday and Saturday.

“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,” he said in a statement posted to X.

“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. 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.

“I am proud of the conference we held in Aberdeen this week and looked forward to discussing it on The Sunday Show.

“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 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.”

Martin Geissler, the presenter of The Sunday Show, addressed the Tory leader’s absence during the programme.

"Regular viewers and listeners of course will note that we usually bring you an interview with the party leader or a senior figure at conference time,” he said.

"Douglas Ross unavailable this morning due to childcare issues, and no other senior representative was made available either. I’m sure, however, we will speak to Douglas Ross soon enough.”

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.”