THE BBC has been urged to change its coverage of Scottish Government coronavirus briefings after the programme was branded “overtly political”.

The SNP’s depute leader Keith Brown wrote to bosses at BBC Scotland with concerns that the show has a “stark bias against the largest party”.

During what is now called the BBC Scotland News Special – previously Coronavirus Update – BBC journalists discuss the country’s Covid-19 response, show part of the First Minister’s briefings, and then cut away for interviews with public health experts and opposition politicians.

The BBC One Scotland coverage started including opposition representatives in September, when the corporation U-turned on plans to only broadcast Nicola Sturgeon’s briefings based on “editorial merit”.

When the broadcaster scrapped the plans, director Donalda MacKinnon told staff they would “incorporate other voices and other perspectives … involving politicians from across the political spectrum”.

The BBC Scotland channel continues to air the briefings in full with no political input at the end.

Now the SNP is “deeply concerned” about the format of the programme – particularly the final 15 minutes where politicians discuss the pandemic response. Last week Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross was featured nearly every day it aired.

Labour’s Anas Sarwar and Sarah Boyack were given interview slots, while the Scottish Greens were represented by Patrick Harvie and Ross Greer.

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“To not feature the SNP in that political space is grossly misrepresentative and deeply unfair,” Brown wrote.

“When the old programme, which was initially solely focused on the public health response to the pandemic, changed to accommodate opposition politician voices, the SNP questioned BBC Scotland on why non-pandemic related matters were arising in opposition politician interviews,” Brown told bosses in his letter.

“It was explained that the BBC could only control what was asked and not the response – and that in any case this was ‘a contested space’.

“This ‘space’ is no longer ‘contested’ – it is now overtly political with a stark bias against the largest party.”

Brown added that his constituents had been in touch to “rightly” point out that the “First Minister’s only focus is on public health and pandemic related matters”.

“So why is the BBC enabling non-SNP politicians to have a ‘free hit’?” the MSP asked. “I urge you to reconsider the format of and our exclusion from this programme as a matter of urgency.”

A senior SNP source told The National: “We’re trying to work with the BBC – but the politicisation of this programme with the continued absence of an SNP voice is just a nonsense and they need to get real.”

In response, the BBC said it continued to show the briefings on multiple platforms “particularly at this time given the state of the pandemic”.

The spokesperson added: “We are also committed to delivering on our obligations around impartiality and we therefore hear from a range of other voices – either political or public health experts – on our BBC One Scotland offer to our audiences.”