Who is on BBC Question Time tonight? Robert Jenrick, Stephen Kinnock, Ian Hislop, Ruth Wishart and Lionel Shriver on panel from Rugby
Lionel Shriver #LionelShriver
Who’s on Question Time tonight? Full line-up of panellists
BBC Question Time returns tonight from Rugby with a panel set to discuss the latest from around the world of politics, from the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, the economic outlook for the UK and the ongoing strikes in the UK.
Fiona Bruce will once again return to chair and lead the panel through the hottest talking points amid a huge week in UK politics, with the search to find a successor for Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon underway.
This week saw British Gas owner Centrica announce record profits to more than £3 billion for 2022 amid rocketing energy prices that have sparked a cost-of-living crisis. The energy giant reported underlying operating profits of £3.3 billion against profits of £948 million in 2021 – and follows record profits from Shell and BP – with calls for a windfall tax.
With all this and more set to be debated on BBC Question Time, we take a look at who is on the panel and what viewers can expect.
Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick, the minister for immigration will be on the BBC flagship political show as the Government’s representative. The former solicitor has been the MP for Newark since 2014 and has long been an advocate of devolution saying that devolving powers to England would benefit areas.
Jenrick made headlines when Housing Secretary when he took on general secretary Mick Lynch about the industrial action during a TV interview which is taking place discussing strikes over pay and working conditions
While appearing on Peston he appeared to accuse the RMT of losing 20 per cent of rail passengers. Lynch said: “I haven’t lost them, Covid did. We operated trains all throughout that period. He added: “The worst way you could do it is by insisting the fares go up by RPI ripping off the commuters, but you won’t give the workers RPI. The fares go up by RPI every year. That’s the government regulations. Last year, profits were made by the train operators – £500m out of that subsidy you gave went to those companies.”
Last month the Immigration Minister told MPs in the House of Commons last month that over 4,600 unaccompanied children have been accommodated in hotels since July 2021.
He added: “There have been 440 missing occurrences and 200 children remain missing, 13 of whom are under 16 years of age and only one of whom is female.”
Despite the figures Home Office minister Robert Jenrick defended the security presence at the hotel run by his department, but said he has asked those running it and council officials to respond to the “very serious allegations” of children being abducted outside it.
Stephen Kinnock
Stephen Kinnock will appear on BBC Question Time representing Labour on the panel.
The Welsh MP for Aberavon, home to the country’s biggest steelworks, was recently in the news after he called on the Business Secretary to apologise to steelwork businesses and communities after Kemi Badenoch when asked whether the UK “come what may would always need to have a steel industry”, said: “Nothing is ever a given.”
Mr Kinnock who is the chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Steel, said: “In this turbulent world, we cannot rely on importing steel from countries that do not have Britain’s best interests at heart.
“Kemi Badenoch is a Brexit supporter, but she clearly doesn’t believe in strengthening Britain’s ability to stand on its own two feet, given that failing to support Britain’s steel industry would be a hammer blow to our sovereign capability.”
Kinnock has often been critical of the Conservative government, describing the Government’s treatment of the Windrush generation as “surely one of the most shameful episodes in our post-war political history”.
Ian Hislop
Editor of the satirical magazine Private Eye Ian Hislop will also be on the BBC panel. The Team captain on Have I Got News For You who wrote scripts for Spitting Image will undoubtedly give his hot takes on a number of issues across UK politics.
The journalist, who’s been Private Eye’s editor for 36 years recently made headlines after an old clip of him on the BBC show resurfaced following comments from new Chairman of the Conservative Party Lee Anderson who said he supported the death penalty making a comeback because of its “100 per cent success rate”
A clip from Hislop on the show in 2011 resurfaced in which he took on Priti Patel. He said: “Large numbers of these cases have been found to be entirely wrong and the men convicted – almost always men, there’s a couple of women – have been found innocent.
“So you would have killed those people, and in some of those very high-profile cases which involve terrorism cases, you would have made very dangerous new martyrs by executing people who turned out not to have committed the murders involved.
“So on a purely practical basis, whatever you think it says about the civilised nature of your society or not, I think it would be incredibly dangerous to have capital punishment back.”
Patel responded “This is really about our criminal justice system, actually. For any conviction, for example, you need an absolute burden of proof, you really do”
The journalist chipped in: “You’re saying they were guilty, all these people?” “No, I’m not saying they were guilty. Obviously, there were ‘not guilty’ cases,” with Hislop adding “So they’d be dead?”
Ruth Wishart
Journalist and broadcaster Ruth Wishart will appear on Question Time, and will likely give her opinion on Nicola Sturgeon stepping down. Wishart, who is a supporter of Scottish independence has written for a host of media publications including The Scotsman, The National, The Herald and The Guardian.
The former presenter of current affairs programme Eye to Eye had expressed concern that the Scottish Government under Nicola Sturgeon were letting independence slip.
In a column in The National she recently wrote about the trans row that had engulfed Scottish politics recently: “Yet I’m fearful that many feminists, for whom independence is not a primary motivation, will now set their face against voting for any party in favour of it. That might not be logical in any way, but it is not atypical of human behaviour.”
Lionel Shriver
Author Lionel Shriver will also appear rounding off the BBC QT panel.
The We Need to Talk About Kevin writer currently writes for The Spectator and has written for The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The New York Times, The Economist, Harper’s, and other publications. She has spoken out against “woke” politics and backed leaving the EU during the 2016 referendum.
Viewers can watch BBC Question Time from Rugby at 8pm on BBC Iplayer or on BBC One after the 10 o’clock news