BBC, ITV, Sky propose election debates

BBC, ITV and Sky have written a joint proposal to the leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, calling for three live debates during the campaign ahead of next year's general election.

According to the statement, each broadcaster would produce and broadcast its own debate between each of the leaders, the BBC reports, an idea recently suggested by ITV.

Under the plans, each debate would be exclusively transmitted live at peak time by the channel that produced it, before being made available to all other British broadcasters.

The three companies have formed a joint team to discuss more detailed plans with each of the political parties and all have pledged to make proper arrangements to ensure impartiality in the debates.

First Secretary of State Peter Mandelson said last week that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was "broadly positive" about the concept of a live TV debate between the main party leaders.

It has been suggested that Sir David Frost could host one of the debates between Brown, Conservative leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg.