THE BBC’s flagship politics debate show Question Time returns once again, with the show being broadcast from north London this evening.
Fiona Bruce will be joined by a variety of guests on the panel on Thursday evening as they discuss all the latest big news stories from the last seven days.
Joining Bruce on this evenings show will be representatives from Labour, the Conservatives and Reform along with journalist and political commentator Oli Dugmore.
Ahead of tonight’s hour-long debate here is everything you need to know.
When is BBC Question Time on and how can I watch?
The show is scheduled after the 10 o’clock news on BBC One, meaning it is set to start at 10.40pm.
It will also be available to watch on BBC iPlayer and to listen on BBC Sounds from 9pm.
Who is on BBC Question Time panel tonight?
Miatta Fahnbulleh
A Labour MP for Peckham and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Fahnbulleh will likely be quizzed about her speech at the Labour conference where she suggested that the cost of building green infrastructure could be spread among UK taxpayers.
Analysis by the MCS Foundation, a green energy charity, found that such a move would save about £120 a year on household bills but would cost the Treasury more than £3 billion a year.
Fahnbulleh said her plans would help cut people’s bills, but did not recommit to her predecessor Ed Miliband’s pledge to bring them down by £300 a year.
Julia Lopez
A Conservative MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, Lopez will likely critique some of Andy Burnham plans which he announced at the Labour Conference including the pledge to create a national care service.
The Prime Minister confirmed he wants to adjust the state pension guarantee in a move the Government hopes will generate around £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s to help set up a new NHS-style model of care in England.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has warned taxpayers face a rise in their bills to help pay for the policy.
“Nothing Burnham announced today will do anything to fix Britain’s long-term problems,” she said.
Suella Braverman
A former Tory who defected to Reform UK where she represents Fareham & Waterlooville as the constituency's MP, Braverman is no stranger when it comes to making headlines in the UK.
Shortly after she was first elected in 2015, she was harshly criticised by members of the Bar Association, who accused Braverman of bypassing legal advisers and the ministerial code over the course of Brexit.
Braverman has frequently courted controversy, such as in March 2019, when she stated in a speech before the Bruges Group that “as Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against ‘cultural Marxism’”, a term she defended even after being challenged by the late journalist Dawn Foster over its antisemitic connotations.
In September 2022, she was appointed as Home Secretary, but quit the following month after confessing to sending a confidential and sensitive government email to her own Gmail account,
The following day, Liz Truss resigned as prime minister – and less than a week later, Rishi Sunak put her back in the same job.
But by November 2023, she was sacked after accusing the Metropolitan Police of bias in the policing of protests.
Oli Dugmore
The executive editor of The New Statesman and formerly part of the PoliticsJOE team, Dugmore has frequently featured on TV talk shows and debates to provide political commentary.
He featured on the show back in February where he was praised for delivering a chilling speech on Labour's “extraordinary” appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
Dugmore began by saying: “I'm generally a pretty forgiving person and I think our politics is poorer for its lack of empathy.
“I think most people should not be defined by the worst thing they've ever done in their lives and most people deserve a second chance.
“I do, however, have some moral boundaries, and one of them is I think it is wrong to have sex with children and I wouldn't want to be friends with anyone that did that and I certainly wouldn't want to work with them. If I did, I think you'd all be asking me questions and they'd be valid ones.
“That is apparently now a fringe position for some people at the top of the Labour Party which is an extraordinary thing to be able to say.
“I don't know about you, I don't know any paedophiles, I don't know anyone that's run a sex trafficking ring, these are extraordinary things we are talking about here.”
