Question time

Diane Abbott suggested last year that some voters backed Brexit because they wanted to see 'less foreign-looking people on their streets'. On Question Time yesterday, she finally got her comeuppance. A furious Leave supporter took her to task on the show by asking her whether she had any remorse for her remarks. The audience member told her: ‘You say you respect the will of the people, but do you have any remorse or any apologies to make for the disgusting lie you made against me and millions of innocent people that voted Leave - that because they voted Leave, they don't like the look of foreign people and must be racist or a xenophobe.

On last night's Question Time, David Dimbleby chaired a panel -- comprised of Ruth Davidson, Lisa Nandy, Paul Nuttall, Len McCluskey and the IEA's Kate Andrews -- from Carlisle. With the Unite election underway, McCluskey -- who is standing for re-election -- tried to use his appearance to defend Labour's bad polling under Jeremy Corbyn, Explaining why his comrade had such bad popularity ratings, Red Len criticised the MSM (aka Mainstream Media) for creating a 'horrible horrible media barrier'. But the bigger problem, according to Len, is the PLP.

On Thurday's Question Time, there was one politician notably absent from the panel. For a second time, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, had to cancel his appearance -- this time putting it down to train delays. And whose fault is this? Well, the Conservatives obviously -- as if Labour were in power the trains would be nationalised: https://twitter.com/johnmcdonnellMP/status/839912841503199232 However, there's a problem. First, those flights sold out after Mr McDonnell had been booked on a flight - but he arrived at the airport too late and the gate was closed. So you can't really blame privately-owned railways for that. More importantly the delays in question were caused by a train caught up in overhead lines, and being left there for far too long.

Oh dear. After the Lords rebellion this week on the status of EU nationals in the UK post Brexit, the issue looks set to continue to be a thorn in the government's side. As Theresa May attempts to hold firm that it is a matter for the negotiations, one Question Time audience member on last night's show from Bedford attempted to express her concerns over a Britain without EU nationals. Alas, her comments soon hit a bum note when she appeared to imply that the reason EU nationals should be allowed to work in the UK is so that British people get their coffee on time: 'For anyone who works in London: who would be serving our coffee in Pret? Who would be selling our sandwiches in Pret? You're not going to get English people to take those jobs!

On Thursday, Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet found themselves in disarray after the Labour leader suggested he would issue a three-line whip for MPs to vote to trigger Article 50. This upset many in his party as they had hoped he would make Labour’s consent -- at the very least -- conditional upon certain details being revealed or caveats regarding Britain's possible future as a tax haven. So, with that in mind, brains at Labour decided the best plan of action was to send Emily Thornberry on Question Time to field questions on the matter.

On Thursday night, John McDonnell had to pull out of an appearance on Question Time -- alongside David Gauke, Tim Farron, Mariana Mazzucato and John Timpson -- after coming down with the flu. Happily, his Labour comrade Chris Leslie -- a former shadow chancellor -- was on hand to step up to the plate at the last minute and take the vacant spot. https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/801481735712210944 So, surely John McDonnell and his team were just delighted that Labour was still represented on the primetime show? Well, perhaps not. Mr S was intrigued to spy the social media activity of the shadow chancellor's head of communications James Mills -- who was previously linked to the leaking of a list of Labour MPs accused of abusing Corbyn.

After Jeremy Corbyn faced a vote of no confidence from Labour MPs over his lacklustre effort in the failed Remain campaign, a leadership contest is now underway. Corbyn and his challenger Owen Smith will spend the summer campaigning against one another for the leadership. However, in order to have a vote supporters only have until 5pm today to cough up £25 to join the party as a registered supporter. In order to encourage his supporters to do exactly this, Jeremy Corbyn has today tweeted a video of his new star supporter Michelle Dorrell. Michelle will look familiar to many.

Poor Ed Miliband. Since his defeat in the General Election, the former Labour leader has seen his influence fade -- dropping to number 40 in this year's Doncaster Power list. Now it seems some are struggling to even remember his name. On last night's Question Time, Red Ed was mistaken for his brother David Miliband twice by his fellow panel member Dreda Say Mitchell. The Brexit-backing novelist mistook him for Labour's prince across the water while discussing the EU: DM: Are we saying David, as a country we are the fifth largest economy EM: It’s Ed, actually DM: Sorry, Ed Alas Mitchell failed to learn her lesson and went on to refer to him as David for a second time later on. Miliband then suggested Mitchell simply refer to him as 'you there' in future.

Last night's Question Time saw David Dimbleby joined by Anna Soubry, Chris Bryant, Douglas Carswell, economist Ruth Lea and Irvine Welsh. As Soubry, Bryant and Carswell all bickered about the government's use of £9m of taxpayers' money for EU leaflets, Welsh -- who lives in Chicago -- said that even if he had a vote, he probably wouldn't use it. While the Trainspotting author leans towards Brexit, he says the choice is a 'spurious' one as either way the economic system will not work to the advantage of the masses: 'It's a spurious choice, life goes on very much in the same way and we've seen how the world economy operates. How the global economy operates and how it operates to the advantage of very few people and the disadvantage of many people.

When Lexie Hill appeared on Question Time last month, she left Cabinet minister Liz Truss speechless when she offered up her argument for leaving the EU. The Brexit youth dismissed the Environment Secretary’s claim that the Prime Minister’s EU negotiation deal will reduce the ‘pull factors’ attracting migrants -- arguing that a rise in the living wage would actually do the opposite: 'I’m sorry but I can’t accept Liz’s arguments. What is increasing the living wage to £9-per-hour in 2020 going to do?

Despite the In campaign's best efforts to reach the youth vote with the help of Britain Stronger in Europe board member June Sarpong, some youngsters still find themselves leaning towards Brexit. Both Liz Truss and Diane Abbott learnt this the hard way on last night's Question Time when a young audience member offered up her argument for leaving the EU. Responding to the Environment Secretary's claim that the Prime Minister's EU negotiation deal will reduce the 'pull factors' attracting migrants to Britain, Lexie Hill -- a 16-year-old schoolgirl -- explained why she disagreed: Audience member: I'm sorry but I can't accept Liz's arguments. What is increasing the living wage to £9-per-hour in 2020 going to do?

It's not been a great week for the In campaign in terms of 'celebrity' endorsements. On Tuesday Emma Thompson unexpectedly got the remain camp in the news when the Nanny McPhee actress explained that she was pro-EU because Britain alone is just 'a cake-filled misery-laden grey old island’. They then seemed to have a royal endorsement after hacks thought Prince William hinted that he was a Europhile in a speech to the Foreign Office. Alas Kensington Palace were quick to put out a statement denying this was the case. So the In campaign must have been hoping it would be a case of third time lucky on Question Time. June Sarpong -- the Britain Stronger in Europe board member -- appeared on the current affairs show to offer a pro-EU perspective on the panel.

Since Jess Phillips was elected as the MP for Birmingham Yardley in May, the Labour politician has become known for her outspoken views -- previously telling Diane Abbott to 'f--- off'. However, her straight-talking approach reached new heights during last night's episode of Question Time after she likened the Cologne sex attacks to a night out in Birmingham. Discussing the refugee crisis on a panel made up of Angus Robertson, Patrick McLoughlin and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Jess Phillips was asked whether Britain could cope with more immigrants in light of the Cologne sex attacks in Germany or the woman who was killed in Sweden.

Last night David Dimbleby was joined on Question Time by a panel comprised of Jacob Rees-Mogg, Piers Morgan, Emily Thornberry, Mark Reckless and Hannah Bardell. As talk turned to the prospect of Heathrow expansion, Rees-Mogg -- who supports the plans -- said that for all the fuss about noise caused by planes, he had suffered few problems with this when he lived near Slough. At which point Dimbleby couldn't help but interrupt and change the topic -- asking if this had been when the Tory MP attended Eton. Alas for all of Dimbleby's wit, the BBC presenter -- who attended Charterhouse -- received a reply that he had not been expecting.