Summary of complaint
We received complaints from people who felt Fiona Bruce interrupted Nigel Farage too often, and that the audience were biased against him.
Our response
Just before Mr Farage鈥檚 questions started the Question Time host Fiona Bruce reminded him, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e here to answer questions from the audience, you know I鈥檒l not interrupt you, that鈥檚 my aim, unless obviously you stray off the point or in fact if the question isn鈥檛 answered.鈥 This was a similar reminder to the one given to Adrian Ramsay, leader of the Green Party, earlier in the programme and to the other four party leaders in a previous special edition of the programme.
After reviewing the programme we鈥檙e satisfied that Fiona only interrupted Mr Farage to bring him back to the question at hand, to clarify a point or to provide context to our audience. We鈥檙e satisfied Fiona treated all leaders fairly.
With regards to the audience, it听was made up of broadly similar levels of supporters of Reform UK and the Green party, with voters who intend to support other parties also included.
There were also a number of people, with a range of political views, who were still making up their mind.
Of course, given this is a programme driven by questions and comments by audience members, we have no way of predicting how the debate will develop or which issues will spark a reaction. The audience were asked in advance to submit what questions they would like to ask, and a question was then asked by an audience member from one of the most popular categories.
There has been reference to particular members of the audience, including an audience member who it is claimed is a member of 麻豆社 staff. The person in question has no affiliation with 麻豆社 News and is not a 麻豆社 staff member. They applied to be in the Question Time audience in the same way as the rest of the audience.
With regards to an audience member who had taken part in pro-Palestinian protests, having previously taken part in a protest does not rule someone out of applying to be in the audience of our Question Time programmes. They also applied in the same way as other members of the audience.
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