THE BBC has been accused of having a "general antipathy" towards the SNP after the party's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was found to have been interrupted almost 40 times throughout this week's programme.
Flynn was interuppted mostly by presenter Fiona Bruce during the show in Aberdeen, with some interruptions coming within seconds of each other as he tried to continue making points.
But other members of the panel including Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and LBC presenter Iain Dale also interrupted the Aberdeen South MP.
The National calculated Flynn was disturbed while he was trying to speak 38 times throughout the hour-long programme.
SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said he had given up on watching the progamme because it was not a "serious" political show, adding he found the level of interruptions Flynn faced "astonishing".
He said: "There seems to be a general antipathy towards the SNP by the producers of the programme. I don’t know why but it’s as if we’re fair game to be attacked in this way. I don’t know why they feel it’s okay to be so rude to SNP speakers.
"It disgusts me [the interruptions] but it doesn’t surprise me. I think it’s a reason why an awful lot of people have given up on Question Time as they don’t think it’s a serious programme.
"It’s more about the entertainment pitch and the social media clicks [you get] just by being rude to people. It’s driven by entertainment factors rather than anything to do with political discourse or analysis.
"This idea of being rude to people or berating them seems to be their stock and trade rather than inquisitive, difficult interviewing or questioning. It’s a pretty bad entertainment programme masquerading as a political show."
On a couple of occasions Flynn was subjected to an onslaught of interruptions from across the panel such as when he tried to speak on the economy.
Lady in white, "What is the cause of and solution to the UK's housing crisis?" Stephen Flynn, "Scotlands story over the last 14 years when it comes to house building is one of success" @StephenFlynnSNP #BBCQT Anas Sarwar, "You just declared a housing emergency yesterday"… pic.twitter.com/cWAyxBDJPo
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) May 16, 2024
Flynn started a speech about what he believes the Scottish people want to see prioritised and supported by their elective representatives at the next election, but he didn’t even get 30 seconds to make his point before broadcaster Dale spoke over him.
Flynn was in the middle of saying: “The public's priorities matter. They are the economy, they want to see the public being on the receipt of investment in their public services, in their NHS, rejecting the austerity agenda that has came out of Westminster for the last 14 years.
“They want to see investment in net zero they want to see alignment with the single market, they want to see immigration ..."
But then Dale interjected by saying: “Why has there been less spent on the Scottish NHS this year than there was last year”
The two then went back and forth before Scottish Tory Meghan Gallacher also tried to cut off Flynn.
Then host Bruce joined in immediately after Gallacher, asking why the waiting lists were so bad in Scotland.
In just one minute and a half, Flynn was interrupted by the other panellists five times and couldn’t finish his answer.
There was another incident where Flynn was making a contribution on a question around the UK's housing crisis.
He said: "Scotland's story over the course of the last 17 years when it comes to house building is one of success."
Within seconds he was interrupted by Sarwar who pointed out the Scottish Government had declared a housing emergency this week and subsequently Dale who said "that's a fair point".
Flynn then said: "I think I should have the opportunity to explain."
Then he was immediately interrupted again by Bruce who sarcastically accused him of interrupting "everyone on the panel but okay you go for it".
A few more seconds went by before Gallacher once again spoke over Flynn.
The BBC has been approached for comment.
