FRAN WINSTON OPINION: The BBC political debate show Question Time is under fire – and for valid reasons.
Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce announced there were illegal immigrants in the audience (Image: BBC)
Watching the latest edition of the BBC‘s Question Time, you could be forgiven for thinking you had tuned into a rerun of The Jerry Springer Show. The US talk show was well known for surprising its guests by bringing on contentious people they had no desire to see in order to fuel confrontation. The BBC, clearly deciding its usual straightforward political debate was a bit dry, took a leaf out of this playbook and ambushed their panel with two illegal immigrants in their audience – and with it their last shred of credibility disappeared into the ether.
This was not “good TV”; it was designed to be a car crash. As a special edition of the show from Dover focusing on the issue of immigration, it was already going to be a heated discussion. None of the panel, which consisted of the Migration Minister Mike Tapp; the Shadow Justice minister Kieran Mullan; the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper; the Leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski; and Reform UK’s Head of Policy Zia Yusuf, are known for holding back. Despite this, the BBC were clearly hoping to catch Yussuf, in particular, off guard and no doubt hoped he would explode.
Host Fiona Bruce acknowledged that the asylum seekers had been invited onto the show “because everyone is talking about people like you”. However, the researchers weren’t talking about them when they briefed the panel. Yussuf later confirmed he was told about their addition to the audience five minutes before going live.
For those who don’t know, I can assure you that this is not how TV works, particularly live TV. Every single production has numerous moving parts, and there is very little margin for error or unexpected breakdowns. Even someone appearing for a quick five-minute discussion on a news show gets a thorough briefing from a researcher. They know what to expect.
By informing the panellists at the eleventh hour, they gave them no opportunity to gather their thoughts or prepare for potential confrontation. Producers would have known this – it is not their first rodeo. I feel this was a premeditated and deliberately antagonistic move that highlighted the BBC’s bias in all its glory.
If they were hoping for fireworks, they got them when a furious row broke out after a second small boat migrant, from Iran, discussed whether he would be willing to go back. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t very keen, leading to a clash with Yusuf. However, I imagine the powers that be now feel that the couple of minutes of discourse this caused wasn’t worth the backlash.
Reform’s Zia Yusuf clashed with two illegal immigrants on Question Time (Image: BBC)
Adding further fuel to this fire is the allegation that producers had “coached” the migrants. Reform MP Richard Tice believed he spotted some headphones on one audience member and questioned what they were. Taking to X, he wrote: “Did BBC QT give headset and coaching to this Channel illegal migrant? He then has the cheek to tell us, British taxpayers, that we must not leave the ECHR… could not make it up.”
If this allegation proves true, it would be the final nail in their coffin when it comes to their credibility in current affairs. You can’t have a debate show if you have scripted the narrative. The BBC is yet to get back to us on this matter.
After the recent Panorama scandal, which saw US President Donald Trump threatening to sue the corporation for up to $5 billion after they edited a clip of one of his speeches to misrepresent what he said, you would think they had learned a lesson.
Clearly, no one took the gravity of that situation on board. Ironically, their actions have now also taken the focus off their very serious debate and shifted it back to their own lack of credibility.
