THE SNP and the Liberal Democrats lost a legal challenge against ITV today after the broadcaster excluded their party leaders from a televised election debate.

The High Court ruled ITV could go ahead with a head-to-head election debate featuring Jeremy Corbyn and Boris Johnson.

During the hearing, Guy Vassall-Adams QC, representing the Lib Dems, said “the voice of Remain [had] been excluded” from the debate, causing “serious consequences for the fairness of the democratic process.”

Philip Coppel QC, representing the SNP, argued it was untrue to say the full range of public opinion was represented by the Conservatives and Labour alone.

ITV’s representatives said the broadcaster would pull the debate if they were found to have broken impartiality rules, but Lord Justice Davis and Mr Justice Warby ultimately found there was “no arguable breach of the Broadcasting Code.”

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford called his party’s exclusion “a democratic disgrace.”

“The result of the decision to exclude the SNP is to discriminate against Scottish voters and to effectively treat them as second-class citizens,” he said.

The debate is due to air on tomorrow night at 8pm.