Union President Joanna Mobed has spoken of her disappointment following a decision by producers of The Alan Titchmarsh Show to exclude her from a televised debate because she is a woman.

Mobed – a final year Linguistics student at Murray Edwards who became president at the start of Michaelmas term – was contacted by the daytime ITV programme to speak as part of a debate about reinstating national service.

The debate was to be part of the ‘Daily Ding Dong’ segment. In the initial email to Mobed, which was later leaked to The Tab, producer Simon Gummer said that he would “really like one of them to be between two ‘professional’ debaters.” His idea was to pit the Oxford and Cambridge Union presidents against each other.

But after expressing her interest in taking part, Mobed received this email response from Gummer:

“This afternoon I thought I had finally got everything sorted and would be able to come back to you with the debate motion and all the details.

“However, my executive producer has decided she wants the debate to be a specific way so all my plans have got [sic] out of the window. She would like two men to debate the motion, ‘This house would reinstate national service’ so would it be possible for you to find me a guy who would be willing to take part? It would also be best if he was British.

“If you could let me know as soon as you can if this would be OK and the details of who you would like to put forward.”

In an official statement, Mobed said: “Initially, the representative from ITV was very cooperative. However, I was disappointed by the decision to take the programme in this direction. Being a woman should not disqualify me from speaking on that motion.”

ITV has defended its decision, saying that male debaters were needed for the debate because the discussion was about reinstating national service for men. An ITV spokesperson stated: “As a TV programme we cast contributors in accordance with the subject matter.

“For this particular item we wanted to debate the motion of reinstating national service for men and so we were looking to cast two men who would explore both sides of the argument.”

However, the National Service Bill currently under consideration in Parliament, to which the motion presumably alludes, is not gender-specific. The proposed legislation would make it compulsory for men and women aged between eighteen and twenty-six to spend a year doing community service or working in the armed forces. National Service was last instated during the Second World War, when both men and women were required to take part.

On the topic of women speaking about what is perceived as a ‘men’s issue’, former Union Debating Officer and gender studies student Clara Spera said: “It is always distressing when individuals are blocked out of expressing their opinions... This specific situation is particularly jarring, as it only reinforces voices that tell us that women cannot have informed and important opinions about issues that might not relate directly to women. “

Mobed also said that she was “a bit surprised by the request for a British speaker." She stated, "When debating, what matters is a person’s ability to think through and understand the issues involved.

“Gender and nationality should not be a consideration in this matter.”

Responding to these revelations, a Union spokesperson told Varsity: “We would like to point out that the e-mails were leaked and our President did not initiate any of the press coverage of this issue.”