Nigel Farage’s Question Time absence defined as chief debate heats up
As more Tory chaos unfolds, four party leaders will face questions from the public tonight in a Question Time special debate.
The BBC is hosting a two-hour panel as the General Election campaign ramps up, with Tory PM Rishi Sunak, Labour leader Keir Starmer, John Swinney for the Scottish National Party and Ed Davey for the Liberal Democrats all set to face the live studio audience.
The format of the debate offers each leader a 30 minute slot to answer questions from members of the audience in York. Lib Dem frontman Ed Davey will kick things off, before John Swinney, Keir Starmer and finally the crisis-stricken Rishi Sunak.
The audience members pressing each politician on their policies and politics have been plucked from “wide range of political sentiment and voting intentions from across Great Britain”, according to the Beeb. But some viewers may be left wondering – where is Nigel Farage, the ring-wing leader of Reform UK?
Mr Farage made a sensational return to mainstream politics when he announced he would be standing in the Essex town of Clacton-on-Sea, coming back as the frontman of Reform UK. His campaign has already been embroiled in controversy as a string of Reform candidates have either been dropped or suspended over offensive remarks and vile social media posts. When announcing its Question Time election special line-up, the BBC confirmed that Mr Farage was not included.
The I’m A Celeb alum complained that he had not been received an invite. At a press conference last week, Mr Farage said: “As we are now ahead of the Conservatives in the polls, I demand that Reform UK is a part of this debate. If the BBC want a fight with me on this, they can have one.”
The BBC has since announced that it will host an additional Question Time special featuring representatives from Reform UK and the Green Party, on 28 June. In response, Mr Farage took to X, formerly Twitter, to write: “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.”
Tonight’s four-way panel, hosted by broadcasting veteran Fiona Bruce, will start at 8pm on BBC One or BBC iPlayer. The Question Time debate comes as a mega-poll predicts a Tory wipeout on July 4, with the party set for the worst-ever defeat in their nearly 200-year history. The explosive YouGov figures revealed yesterday the Tories are likely to be reduced to just 108 MPs, down a whopping 257 since 2019. If the data is correct, Labour will sail into a glorious victory, securing 425 seats.
Rishi Sunak’s sinking election campaign has been plunged into further chaos with allegations of staff betting on the date of the general election. With just two weeks to go before polling day, the Conservatives’ director of campaigning Tony Lee was forced to take a leave of absence last night amid reports that he and his wife Laura Saunders, candidate for North West Bristol, are being investigated by the Gambling Commission.
Ms Saunders and Mr Lee are the latest people with links to the Tory party or No 10 caught up in allegations about betting on the date of the July 4 contest, after Rishi Sunak’s aide Craig Williams last week apologised for putting a £100 bet on a July election three days before it was announced. Elsewhere, one of the Prime Minister’s police protection officers has been arrested by the Met for a bet on the election.
