Billy Mitchell, a right-winger and failed UKIP candidate, claimed he had been personally invited to appear in the BBC's Question Time audience
UPDATE: We've had a response from the BBC ... and there wasn't much to it.
ON Tuesday, news broke that Billy Mitchell, a right-winger and failed UKIP candidate, claimed he had been personally invited to appear in the BBC's Question Time audience.
According to The Times, the loyalist says he was invited by the show's producer to appear in the unionist-heavy audience in Motherwell last week, in part to make up a shortage of conservative speakers.
READ MORE: Failed UKIP candidate claims he was personally invited on to Question Time
This had led to six questions we believe the BBC must now answer:
- How do you justify going out of your way to insert Mitchell, who is well known for making bitter rants about the SNP and independence, into an audience which is supposed to be genuinely representative of Motherwell?
- How do you justify giving him airtime over people who live in the local area and want a rare chance to hold politicians to account?
- Whose decision was it to invite him on to the show?
- On how many other occasions have you added somebody into a QT audience so they can deliver a particular political agenda?
- What is the procedure for selecting a Question Time audience – and did this break your own rules?
- Will you be issuing an apology to the people of Motherwell for misrepresenting them on a UK-wide channel?
We've reached out to the BBC and are awaiting their response.
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