Pro-independence Scottish politician decries general election debate snub

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party and also Scotland's first minister, has accused rival heavyweight United Kingdom politicians Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn of being too scared to debate issues with her ahead of Britain's Dec 12 general election.

She made the claim after learning she had been left out of a planned televised pre-election debate being hosted by broadcaster ITV.

"My message to Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson (leaders of the opposition Labour Party and the ruling Conservative Party) is this: why are you so scared to debate me?" the Financial Times quoted her as saying. "I'll debate you anytime and anywhere and it will be for you to justify why Scotland can't have a choice on our own future."

She made the remarks at a Scottish independence rally in Glasgow on Saturday where she told the crowd Scotland was "within touching distance" of being able to break away from the rest of the UK.

ITV's pre-election debate was announced on Friday and will be held on Nov 19.

ITV has responded to criticism of the debate's format by saying it plans to hold an additional televised face-off later in the campaign that will feature not only Johnson and Corbyn but the leaders of smaller political parties, including Sturgeon's SNP, the centrist Liberal Democrats, the anti-European Union Brexit Party, the environmentalist Green Party, and Plaid Cymru, which wants Wales to break away from the rest of the UK.

The Liberal Democrats also complained on the weekend about being left out of the first ITV debate, with the party claiming a focus on the two big political parties was "misrepresenting the current political reality".

Voters in Scotland participated in a referendum in 2014 on whether Scotland should break away from the UK. Fifty-five percent wanted to remain part of the UK and 45 percent favored leaving. The SNP has since been looking for a reason to ask the question again and says the UK's decision to leave the EU against the will of people in Scotland who want to stay in the block is reasonable enough.

Opinion polls suggest Scottish voters are evenly divided on the independence issue.

In other UK general election news, Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party, has said he will not stand in the general election.

He said on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show that he would serve the cause of leaving the EU better by supporting the 600 candidates his party plans to field.

"I don't want to be in politics for the rest of my life," said Farage, who has tried and failed on seven occasions to get himself elected as a member of Parliament.

Johnson, meanwhile, said on the Sophy Ridge on Sunday show on Sky television that he was "deeply, deeply disappointed" not to have delivered Brexit by the Oct 31 deadline he had set himself. He said winning the upcoming election would ensure he gets the job done.