The tub of lard threat to TV-shy David Cameron

The empty chair is a powerful weapon in the broadcaster’s armoury. If you doubt that, ask Roy Hattersley. The then deputy leader of the Labour Party failed to turn up for an appearance on Have I Got News for You in June 1993. The producers, riled by his third no-show, didn’t just leave an empty chair where he would have been sitting - they placed a tub of lard (see clip) on the desk next to Paul Merton where it stayed for the rest of the show.

This, in effect, is the threat facing David Cameron if he tries to wriggle out of national TV debates with the other party leaders at next year’s general election. He could be “empty chaired” by broadcasters. According to The Times, the broadcasting regulator Ofcom would allow such a broadcast to go ahead as long as the PM’s views were “represented” in his absence.

Cameron made history in 2010 when as Tory leader he agreed to take part in debates even though he was enjoying a polling lead of 20 per cent over Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Some 22 million watched these first British TV debates between Cameron, Brown and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who, as we all know, grabbed the headlines with a brilliant display, leading to a surge in support for his party.

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Lord Ashcroft, the then Tory party deputy chairman, believed it was a huge mistake to let Cameron take part. It allowed the Liberal Democrats to portray themselves as the party of "real change" and it probably cost Cameron an overall majority, forcing him into the coalition with Clegg.

Ashcroft’s views are shared by the Tories’ new campaign chief, Lynton Crosby, according to report in The Observer in August. It quoted “Downing Street sources” saying the Australian had made it clear he couldn’t see “any advantage in Cameron taking part in the debates”.

The report claimed Crosby hoped to avoid the debates by complicating negotiations between the parties and the broadcasters over the number, style and timings of the debates.

And that was before Ukip entered the frame, using the election in October of their first MP – Douglas Carswell in Clacton – to argue that Nigel Farage should be allowed to take part in the TV debates.

Shortly after the Clacton result, Cameron said he was ready “in principle” to debate with Farage. But nobody believes he really wants to risk taking on the Ukip leader, who proved himself a formidable performer in an LBC debate with Clegg in March.

The fact is that despite the broadcasters coming up with various options – including one debate that would include Farage - there have been no substantive negotiations between the parties, prompting suspicions that Cameron is out to scupper the whole project.

He appeared to champion the cause of Natalie Bennett, the Green party leader, when she complained bitterly about broadcasters’ plans to exclude her, telling ITN News: "I'm in favour”. But his backing for Bennett surely owes more to the hope that the Greens might steal votes from the Lib Dems and Labour if she makes an impact than to any born-again environmentalism.

Frustration is growing in the other parties and John McTernan, a former aide to Tony Blair, has come up with the “empty chair” threat in an attempt to break the deadlock.

If he really wants to put pressure on Cameron, he should suggest the tub of lard treatment - it might touch a nerve. The PM turned down the opportunity of a bike ride with his Australian host, the fitness fanatic Tony Abbott, at the recent G20 summit in Brisbane, saying that being photographed in Lycra might not help his re-election chances.