The BBC’s flagship TV political debate programme sparked a fresh controversy this evening - because it came to Bristol but had no-one representing the city’s largest political party.
BBC Question Time is being recorded this evening and shown on BBC1 tonight, with a panel of guests from the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems, as well as a right-wing journalist and the boss of Oxfam.
But Green Party figures nationally and in the city have described the programme as a ‘stitch-up’, after no-one from the party was invited to take part. The Green Party has the largest number of councillors elected to City Hall and one of them is the party’s national co-leader.
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The programme is being recorded at around 8pm from the SGS College WISE campus in Stoke Gifford, and this week the guests are from many places around the country, apart from Bristol.
Labour’s Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry is taking part, as is the Liberal Democrat’s Levelling Up spokesperson Helen Morgan, who is an MP in North Shropshire.
The most local politician taking part is Conservative Dr Andrew Murrison, who represents South West Wiltshire and is a junior defence minister. The Spectator’s Fraser Nelson is also on the panel, as is Danny Sriskandarajah, the chief executive of Oxfam.
Although Bristol is run by a directly-elected Labour Mayor Marvin Rees and the West of England regional authority is run by a directly-elected Labour metro mayor Dan Norris - neither of whom are taking part in the programme - the Green Party has the most number of elected councillors at City Hall, following the victory earlier this year in the Hotwells & Harbourside by-election, which took it to 25 councillors, one ahead of Labour.
The new Green Party councillor who won that by-election is Patrick McAllister. He said: “Imagine hosting a political panel discussion in a city where the Greens are the largest party on the council, including the party's co-leader, and not inviting a single one.”
Another Green Party councillor in Bristol said they weren't even allowed to be in the audience. Cllr Ani Stafford-Townsend, who represents the Central ward in Bristol, said: "I was offered a ticket, and then got rejected when they found found I was an active Green. We’re not even invited to be in the audience let alone on the panel."
Nationally, Bristol West is said to be the Green Party’s number one target seat at the next general election, and its candidate is city councillor and the party’s national co-leader Carla Denyer.
Nationally, a Green Party senior figure Ed Fraser, described the issue as ‘an absolute stitch up’, in a tweet quoting the experience of another senior Green Party figure who was booked to go on Newsnight on Wednesday, but dropped at the last minute.
“Question Time is in a constituency with 17 Green councillors tonight and they won’t have us on the show, yet (are) quite happy to boot our deputy leader off Newsnight the night before. Producers constantly get away with palming us off, it’s not on,” he wrote.
The Question Time episode is not being filmed in Bristol West, where the Greens have 17 councillors, however. The Stoke Gifford college location is in the Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency in South Gloucestershire, which has a Conservative MP in Jack Lopresti, and three Conservative councillors covering the Stoke Gifford ward on Conservative-run South Gloucestershire Council.
A BBC Spokesperson said: “Each week Question Time aims to select a panel with a broad range of views, knowledge and experience, with panellists who are relevant to the big stories or debates of the week. We carefully consider levels of political party representation and decisions are based on a number of factors including current and previous electoral support.”
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