Nearly 200,000 people sign petition to challenge TV debate

A petition on Change.org demanding that the Green Party be included in the upcoming Leaders' debates has gone viral, drawing in nearly 200,000 signatures.

The petition addresses all the major broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky to include the Greens in the debates, who have so far been excluded. The petition poses an additional challenge to TV stations across the UK as the Greens have a female leader, and there is deep criticism that there is misrepresentation of female MPs in the media.

"The Green Party beat the Liberal Democrats in the 2014 European Elections and is polling neck-and-neck with them in General Election opinion polls. In May 2014 more than 1.2 million people voted Green - more than 150,000 more than voted Liberal Democrat.

Natalie Bennett has just as much a right to be on that panel as the men. Apparently it’s too “messy” to have too many candidates in a TV debate. 

By excluding a party with a female leader, we are sending a clear message to the public — politics is still an old boys club."