The missing leader

In the absence of a three leader debate on Channel 4, Messrs Clegg, Brown and Cameron pledged to do wide-ranging individual interviews with me for Channel 4 news.

Interviews with Mr Clegg and Mr Brown duly took place on the agreed dates.

You may have heard me billing them as “the first” and “the second of three interviews with the main party leaders”.

Obviously, we try hard to be fair to all the parties, but in this case I’m afraid we won’t be able to deliver on that promised third interview.

My encounter with Mr Cameron was originally scheduled to take place ten days ago, but his people called at the last minute to ask if they could postpone it to yesterday afternoon.

But yesterday brought another cancellation, leaving the possibility open that they it would happen today.

Now we’ve been told that the campaign schedule in these last few days means it’s just not possible.

This will be the first general election campaign I’ve presented for Channel 4 News in which one of the main party leaders has declined to do an interview with me.