BBC and ITV "pathetic" for excluding independent mayoral candidates from its televised debates. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said: "The rules being used by the BBC and ITN are ridiculously skewed towards the status quo. It is an uphill challenge for any independent to make headway. I have looked at the guidelines and while they refer to political parties, they do allow editorial judgement and a judgement of the best candidate with the most chance. The best form of objective evidence is probably the betting odds. Bookmaker William Hill has ranked Miss Benita at third favourite - at 20/1 - behind Labour's Ken Livingstone and the Tories" to win next month. Parties have to show proportional coverage, and most broadcasters rely on opinion polls which do not routinely single out independent candidates Mrs Benita is also denied an election broadcast because she is not an official political party. But Lord O'Donnell said that based on betting odds Mrs Benita had a stronger case to appear in televised debates than the Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick. Shutting out independent candidates who were not from the main parties stopped more people from being engaged by politics. He said: "In Britain we have a problem. We have a problem of trust and a problem about people not joining political parties and not voting in terms of the young. We are not engaging people with democracy and there is an opportunity with new mayors, new police commissioners. The next televised debate is being held by Sky News on Thursday night, with part of the two hour long programme being given over to independents. John McAndrew, associate editor of Sky News, said: "We have invited - and hope to hear from - all mayoral candidates during our special evening of live coverage on Thursday. These decisions are always a fine balance between our obligations to our viewers, fairness to all parties and the guidance of the regulator. In inviting the three major parties to take part in the initial debate followed by interviews with all other candidates, I believe we can achieve that balance. Separately it also emerged that Mrs Benita was meeting Ofcom, the media regulator, to demand that the watchdog force broadcasters to cover her campaign. She said: "I am not allowed a party election broadcast. By definition, I'm not a party. The BNP can get one. I think that's pretty outrageous. I have been banging my head against a brick wall. There is still time to do the right thing. There are seven candidates, give us all a voice in the last two weeks. She launched her manifesto for the May 3 elections on Tuesday. It includes support for a controversial third runway at Heathrow Airport, and a promise to create 80,000 new low cost homes for Londoners. Mrs Benita, who has a team of five people working for her campaign, had to contribute £20,000, including some from her own resources, and win signatories from every London borough in order to be approved as an official mayoral candidate. A BBC spokesman said: "The relative amount of coverage given to political parties and candidates in all elections reflects levels of past and/or current electoral support. We would take account, for instance, of robust trends in opinion polls, in giving due weight to different candidates. Under our election guidelines all will receive at least a minimum level of coverage across our programmes. A source added that Ms Benita has featured on BBC programmes such as Radio Four's Today programme and BBC2"s Newsnight. ITV1"s London Mayoral debate programme will be scheduled Tuesday, April 24, in the London region. A spokesman said: "The 60-minute debate will take place between Boris Johnson, Jenny Jones, Ken Livingstone, and Brian Paddick before an audience of ordinary Londoners. This is part of ITV1's wider scheduled regional programming covering the London Mayoral election and provides viewers with the opportunity to see a debate between candidates from the main political parties. As with all ITV1 broadcasts of this type, the programme will conform to the standards of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. Across ITV1's coverage of the Mayoral election as a whole, we work to ensure all candidates are represented.