Broadcasters came under fire yesterday after suggesting that Ukip leader Nigel Farage should be included in TV debates with the three main party leaders ahead of the general election.

Joint plans for prime-ministerial brouhahas would see the loud-mouthed MEP debate Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy PM Nick Clegg and Labour leader Ed Miliband in ITV debates chaired by news anchor Julie Etchingham.

Only one debate, chaired by the BBC’s David Dimbleby, will follow the three-way format of the 2010 shows.

Former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman would chair a tete-a-tete between Mr Cameron and Mr Miliband for Channel 4 and Sky News under the proposals.

The revelation follows Ukip’s victory in the Clacton by-election last week.

But broadcast grandees questioned the logic of including Ukip in the debates.

Former BBC political news editor Joy Johnson told the Star: “It’s ludicrous to include Ukip.

“They may have the wind behind them, and it seems they have broadcast journalists behind them because they want a good story. But in a debate it’s likely they’ll be totally undisciplined and they’ll be allowed to get away with it.

“TV debates work in the US because there are only two parties. It’s much harder to make them work with the sort of political landscape we have now.”

And former World Service journalist Michael Way said: “If you go that low then you have to include them all.

“The Greens have got one MP, Ukip have now got one MP, and pretty soon the Lib Dems will probably have just one MP.

“But you can’t select one minority party off the back of one by-election and not another.”

Green leader Natalie Bennett said the public would be “seriously short-changed” by the exclusion of her party.

“With these proposals the broadcasters are demonstrating just how out of touch they are with the public mood,” she said.

A Lib Dem spokesman complained about the party’s exclusion from one of the debates.

“The Liberal Democrats, like the Labour Party, have publicly said that we would be prepared to sign up to the same 3-3-3 system we had in 2010,” he said.

The invited parties will now enter discussions about the format of the debates.

Mr Farage attended Parliament yesterday to see Douglas Carswell sworn in after claiming victory in the Clacton by-election.