A key Reform UK member said to have lodged a formal complaint with the BBC following the latest episode of Question Time. Zia Yusuf, the party’s policy chief, hit out at the broadcaster’s decision to include in the audience of the programme “men who had entered the UK illegally”.
Yusuf claimed the broadcaster had created a situation he likened to asking “convicted burglars to debate law and order” after he was questioned on-air by two men who admitted entering Britain illegally. The Afghan and Iranian who had both arrived on small boats, were in the Question Time audience on Thursday. In his letter to both the complaints team and Board of Directors, Yusuf said: “This programme represented a serious failure of impartiality, editorial judgment, and audience selection standards expected of the BBC.”
The Iranian man in the audience, on the other hand, launched into a defence of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Party Leader Nigel Farage called the episode a “set-up” after the broadcast, claiming the BBC had given a national platform to people “the majority of the country want to keep out”.
Posting his complaint letter on X, Yusuf said: “I have lodged a complaint with the BBC, asking why they chose to platform men who had entered the United Kingdom illegally, giving them a national stage to lecture the British public on immigration policy.”
Nigel Farage called the episode a ‘set-up’ (Image: Getty)
Defending Mr Yusuf, Mr Farage said: “The BBC sunk to new depths last night on their Question Time show, their flagship politics show for over four decades, where they had two audience members who had illegally come into Britain by boat.
“Both of those individuals should not even be in the United Kingdom, they’ve broken in illegally. They should have been deported.”
Also on the panel was Dover and Deal MP and Migration Minister Mike Tapp, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle Dr Kieran Mullan, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper and Green Party Leader Zack Polanski.
A BBC spokesperson told the Express said: “As immigration continues to be a primary concern for people in the UK, Question Time held a special episode in Dover with panellists from across the political spectrum and a local audience with a range of views and experiences.
“Over 20 audience members asked questions and contributed to the debate – including two people with direct experience of the asylum system in the UK who have been granted refugee status.”
“All the parties represented on the panel were told the day before the show that there would be people in the audience who had been through the asylum system.”
