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Monday December 21st 2009

The UK will witness its first ever televised election debate following agreement between broadcasters and the leaders of the three main political parties, it has been announced.

The two-hour debate, which will take place one week before Polling Day, will feature the leaders of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties while separate debates held in Scotland and Wales will include the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist Parties repsectively.

The election debate, agreed after months of negotiation, will be shown simultaenously on the BBC, ITV and Sky News as well as BBC World as well as being offered to principal foreign news outlets such as CNN and Al-Jazeera.

In addition to the debate, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will each be interviewed for 45 minutes with a further 45 minutes allocated to questions from an invited audience. Alex Salmond and Ieuan Wyn Jones will face similar interviews and questions though these will be shown only in Scotland and Wales respectively. The three main party leaders will be interviewed on successive nights in the week before the debate - dates of the interviews with the Scottish and Welsh Nationalist leaders are yet to be confirmed. Leaders from the Green Party, UKIP and the BNP will not be interviewed and nor will they take part in the televised debate.

The format of the debate is yet to be confirmed but sources close to the negotiations suggest each leader will be allowed a brief introduction before 20 minutes on the economy, domestic and foreign policy matters respectively and a final 30 minutes of questions on any topic from the studio audience.

It has been announced that David Dimbleby, Alastair Stewart and Adam Boulton will be the debate moderators with each leading a section of the debate. Questions will be invited in advance on-line. It has also been agreed that there will be no audience reaction during the debate. The parties agreed that excessive cheering or jeering would undermine the debate itself.

The General Election is widely expected to be held on May 5th next year.
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