BBC Question Time particular company confirmed however one chief is lacking

The BBC have confirmed the lineup for their Question Time Leaders’ Special.

A special edition of the show hosted by Fiona Bruce will be shown on Thursday 20 June on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 8pm.

Confirmed participants in the Question Time Leaders’ Special are Tory PM Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, John Swinney for the Scottish National Party and Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats. Nigel Farage, who recently returned as Reform UK leader, will not be included.

The leaders will be given 30 minutes each to answer questions from the live studio audience in York. Ed Davey will go first, before making way for John Swinney, Keir Starmer, and finally Rishi Sunak. Audience members will be selected from a “wide range of political sentiment and voting intentions from across Great Britain”, the broadcaster said, and will be asked to submit questions in advance and on the night.

Nigel Farage is to take part in a separate Question Time leaders’ special after publicly criticising the BBC for not including him in Thursday’s show. He claimed he should have been invited on after a recent YouGov opinion poll put his party ahead of the Tories. The BBC said the additional episode for Farage reflected “the fact that it is clear from across a broad range of opinion polls that the support for Reform UK has been growing”.

He has since gone even further, and is now demanding that he is included in the head-to-head Sunak vs Starmer debate on June 26 – despite his party being projected to win no more than a handful of seats. He wrote on X: “I am pleased that the BBC acknowledge that support for Reform UK has been growing in this election. We must now be included in the head-to-head debate with Sunak and Starmer on June 26th.”