THE BBC had to edit Thursday’s edition of Question Time before it was shown on BBC One due to a factual error from host Fiona Bruce.
Bruce had wrongly claimed that Labour had not pledged not to increase National Insurance contributions for working people in their 2024 General Election manifesto.
It came after a week of headlines focused on the issue, as speculation said that Chancellor Rachel Reeves could be set to raise the National Insurance contributions for employers instead.
Speaking to the BBC on Tuesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer refused to rule out doing so.
The Question Time host nonetheless claimed that Labour had not mentioned working people in relation to National Insurance in their manifesto.
In fact, the Labour manifesto said: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.”
Bruce’s error forced the BBC to edit it out of the Question Time broadcast on BBC One.
In a statement, the broadcaster said: “On the live iPlayer version of Question Time tonight, we said that in their 2024 General Election manifesto, Labour didn’t mention the phrase ‘working people’ in relation to raising National Insurance.
“We are happy to clarify that they did and accordingly we have taken it out of the BBC1 edition of the programme.”
Question Time is shown live on the iPlayer before being broadcast on TV later in the evening.
