SNP officials have changed the dates of their party’s annual conference so that Nicola Sturgeon can get more TV coverage.
For years, the SNP conference started on a Thursday and finished on a Sunday. This year it will start in Glasgow on Sunday, October 8 and finish on Tuesday, October 10.
An SNP source explained: “Nicola wasn’t getting on to the Sunday broadcast programmes like other leaders. We were told that the broadcasters wanted to preview conferences not review them so they would only get the leader on ahead of a conference, not after it.”
Frustrated with having to fight, and often failing, to get on to the main Sunday politics programmes just as her conference was finishing, Ms Sturgeon made some changes.
Now, with the conference on a Sunday, Ms Sturgeon hopes she can do the rounds of the Sunday politics programmes, although it is understood that broadcasters will not decide who they will invite on to their shows in October until nearer the time.
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The source added: “They have no excuse now. They have told us they want to have party leaders on ahead of their conferences and that’s what we can provide.”
The SNP conference this year will be held at the SEC in Glasgow, one of only a small number of venues in Scotland which are big enough to take the SNP.
A spokesman for the Liberal Democrats said: “This is quite clearly a blatant attempt to increase telly time for their leader. Let’s hope that the SNP use this to explain to the people in Scotland on how they are going to fix the issues in our NHS, education and economy and won’t use this as another chance to rattle on about independence.”