The outrageous new audience selection policy BBC Question Time revealed last night

The BBC Question Time audience and host Fiona Bruce
Tracy Keeling


BBC Question Time revealed an outrageous new policy for audience selection on 16 January.

Apparently, following the Conservative Party gaining a substantial majority at the 2019 general election, the BBC will no longer select audiences to “reflect a broad range of political views”. Instead, the broadcaster is now choosing audience members based on “the current political picture” in the country where the episode takes place. On 16 January, that ensured Liverpool – an area of England where voters delivered only Labour MPs at the election – was represented by an audience of “more Conservative than Labour supporters”.

Worse still, host Fiona Bruce tried to pass it off as the BBC‘s standard practice.

As usual?

After introducing the programme’s panellists, Bruce said:

As usual, our audience has been selected to reflect the current political picture, depending where we are. So here in England that means there are more Conservative than Labour supporters plus a smaller number from other parties.

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But there’s nothing “usual” about this selection process. The BBC‘s own web page on frequently asked questions says:

Question Time selects local audiences which reflect a broad range of political views. … This is to ensure a range of views are represented in the audience. …

As with the make-up of the panels, Question Time is aiming to achieve due impartiality in the membership of the audience across the series as a whole, rather than being confined to an exact mathematical formula for each programme.

The standard line

Indeed, the BBC has faced criticism in the past for its audience make-up. In May 2019, SNP deputy leader Keith Brown accused the broadcaster of doing an episode in Scotland that was “stuffed full of Tory plants”.

In response to the 2019 criticism, the BBC stuck to its actual “usual” line in this instance, rather than the new one Bruce alleged was standard, saying:

There is a selection process to ensure a range of views are heard and last night’s QT audience included supporters of different political parties, including the SNP.

The Canary asked the BBC to comment on the 16 January edition but it declined.

A Tory win all round

Femi Oluwole urged the BBC to be “simpler” in its explanation of audience selection, and raised a comparison from late last year:

The Under 30s edition of Question Time Oluwole mentioned, however, took place during an election. During such periods, “particular guidelines” apply to ensure balance. Nonetheless, his point that the ‘Tories won’ in terms of audience representation “both times” is spot on.

Others raised the fact that the BBC‘s choice of audience did not reflect the true ‘political picture’ in Liverpool at all:

Running scared?

The Conservative government showed little respect to the BBC during the election itself. Meanwhile, the BBC has also shown little respect to Labour or the left over the last few years.

As such, it’s hard not to suspect the broadcaster is running scared of the Tory Party. After all, Boris Johnson threated the broadcaster’s funding model just days after the election. Moreover, the BBC already faced regular accusations of Tory-bias in its audience selection. This change serves to allow that imbalance to continue, on the grounds that it’s Britain’s new reality.

But it is a change. This isn’t business ‘as usual’ for audience selection, despite what the broadcaster would have us believe.

Featured image via the BBC

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  • Show Comments

    1. Defining ‘fair’ audience selection for panel shows drawing upon questions from the live audience and/or viewers is nigh impossible. Perhaps the grossly biassed can be identified, but nothing more.

    2. The reputation of the BBC has plummeted over just a few years so far as anybody Left of Centre is concerned – or come to that anybody Centre – because of the bias. It’s particularly evident in the talking heads invited into the political news programmes on R4 and TV. They are invariably stuffed with Rightwing pundits while the narrative is pure Daily Mail. Newsnight is the worst. Partly one suspects it’s simply that most media types are now like Tory MP’s, public school and Oxbridge. It’s the same with journalists; once they were working class Grammar School boys who could be arsed to learn shorthand. But it’s also institutional bias to try and prevent the expected attack from this exceptionally Rightwing administration which will see the Licence done away with and the organisation left to survive as best it can. The printed media is out of control – self control I mean. Just look at the stories about the Royals!! That media is firmly in the hands of less than half a dozen billionaires who share one thing in common, a hatred of the Left. 2019 made it only too clear that a political movement that these handful of people don’t like is doomed to failure. That has serious implications as to how these threats can be dealt with.

    3. BBC – Boris’ Broadcasting Corporation?
      BBC – Biased Broadcasting Corporation?
      BBC – Blatantly Biased for Conservatives?

      It’s not the reputable company it once was. Well, perhaps it’s just not hiding it’s governmental role as well as it once did. Once I trusted the BBC. Silly me.

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