Fiona Bruce had a blunder when hosting the popular show, Question Time this week (Picture: BBC)
BBC has been forced to make an edit to their popular show, Question Time, following a clash between Fiona Bruce and Trade Minister Douglas Alexander.
The show airs every Thursday on BBC One and features a topical debate in which political and media figures answer questions from the public, with the most recent episode including a blunder by host Bruce, 60.
While speaking to Alexander earlier this week, 56, the presenter was adamant that Labour did not use the phrase ‘working people’ in their manifesto about raising National Insurance.
The truth, however, was that the party had, in fact, used the term.
Things became tense between the pair as Bruce spoke to the Labour minister about the topic of the employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) and how they could be increased during the upcoming budget, which is due to be revealed on Wednesday, October 30.
Bruce claimed the party, which was voted in following the UK General Election on July 4, was ‘completely clear’ during campaigning that it would not seek to increase National Insurance if it were elected.
The host’s remarks have been edited out of the show since it aired (Picture: Michael Mccarthymet)
She continued to say Labour had not said this was only relating to working people: ‘There wasn’t a paragraph that said “only for employees,”‘ she claimed.
Alexander responded, denying the claims: ‘We consistently said we’re not raising taxes on working people.’
However, Bruce, who has also helmed BBC Ten O’Clock News, was adamant in her point and asked Alexander: ‘Should we be in a position where National Insurance contributions are raised for employers, in principle surely that is a breach of your manifesto?’
He replied by stating voters would ‘understand the distinction between working people and businesses’.
https://twitter.com/PolitlcsUK/status/1847037063285125402
Shortly after the show aired, BBC Question Time issued a statement on its X account stating that they had made post-production edits to the episode as the manifesto did use the phrase ‘working people’ like Bruce had insisted.
‘On the live iPlayer version of Question Time tonight, we said that in their 2024 General Election manifesto, Labour didn’t mention the phrase ‘working people’ in relation to raising National Insurance. We are happy to clarify that they did and accordingly we have taken it out of the BBC1 edition of the programme.’
Bruce’s blunder comes just months after she hosted the Question Time Leaders special between the now former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Ed Davey and John Swinney MSP, upsetting viewers by ‘interrupting’ the leaders when they gave answers.
Bruce came under fire in July for ‘interrupting’ leaders (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)
Moments into the programme, Bruce introduced Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed, explaining: ‘Just to say that our rules here are pretty simple. For every leader they are the same.
‘You won’t get interrupted if you keep your answers reasonably brief, and you actually answer the question.’
‘My job here is to keep you to the point,’ she continued, leading into the first question.
But many quickly pointed out she didn’t seem to stick to her own rule.
@VoB1984 wrote: ‘@bbcquestiontime Fiona Bruce’s pledge not to interrupt is going well.’
@Nickmunton said: ‘Introductory comments from Fiona Bruce: “You won’t be interrupted if you answer the question concisely”. Almost immediately she’s interrupting Ed Davey, and continues to interrupt.
‘Please, please, please ask her to stop interrupting. We want to hear the politicians, not FB.’
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