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Vote Leave threatens ITV with legal action over referendum event

The Vote Leave campaign has threatened to take legal action after ITV announced David Cameron and Nigel Farage would take part in a live EU referendum event.

Vote Leave described the absence of a Conservative cabinet minister to appear at the same event as the prime minister as an "outrage" and that "ITV have effectively become part of the 'In' campaign".

The two party leaders will each take questions from a studio audience during an hour-long programme moderated by Julie Etchingham.

"Cameron and Farage Live: The EU Referendum" will be broadcast at 9pm on Tuesday June 7 and is the first of two live events on ITV ahead of the vote.

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ITV defends choice of Farage for referendum event

ITV has hit back at claims of a "stitch up" in staging a head-to-head event between Nigel Farage and David Cameron before the EU referendum.

Credit: PA

The official Vote Leave campaign has threatened legal action, accusing the broadcaster of allowing the Prime Minister to hand-pick Mr Farage as his opponent in an attempt to sway voters, and said it had given more air-time to 'in' campaigners.

But the TV giant said it had made an "editorial decision" in asking Mr Farage to appear in the Q&A show on June 7, as he had been a "leading proponent" of Britain leaving Europe for more than two decades.

In a statement, an ITV spokeswoman said:

ITV has not lied to anyone, nor has there been any kind of 'stitch up'.

Senior figures from the Vote Leave campaign have been invited to our debate on June 9 and have every opportunity to air their views and opinions on the issues in a two-hour long peak time programme on ITV.

It was our editorial decision as to who would take part in the June 7 programme; the PM called the referendum, and the country wants to hear from him, and Nigel Farage has been a leading proponent of an exit from the EU for more than 20 years and his party received 3.8 million votes at the election. We invited them both and they accepted.

We think our viewers will find both programmes useful in providing information ahead of polling day. Our programming will, as always, be fair, balanced and duly impartial.

– ITV spokeswoman
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Vote Leave threatens ITV with legal action over referendum event

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