Who’s on BBC Question Time tonight?

Fiona Bruce, presenter of the BBC's Question Time programme. Photograph: BBC. - Credit: Archant

The easing of lockdown is likely to cause a fiery debate on tonight’s Question Time.

The panel on a previous episode of BBC Question Time practice social distancing. Photograph: BBC. – Credit: Archant

The panellists meet again in the week that Boris Johnson allowed people to take unlimited exercise, see one family or friend in an open space, and encouraged people to go back to work.

On the panel tonight a Tory minister, a Labour frontbencher, a union boss, an outspoken Brexiteer and an expert in public health.


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The panel includes:

Stephen Barclay

Conservative MP and chief secretary to the Treasury. A former Brexit secretary, but considered more capable than predecessors than David Davis and Dominic Raab. Expect him to field questions about the cost of the government’s support scheme and how it will be paid.

Bridget Phillipson

Labour MP, Remain campaigner, and shadow chief secretary to the Treasury. Last week warned ‘the government will need an ambitious plan to get our economy going once more, to ensure support not just for job retention but for job creation’.

Mick Cash

General secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) – a trade union. This week expressed frustration about the government sending workers back, warning social distancing on public transport commutes was ‘impossible’.

Luke Johnson

Former chairman of Pizza Express, Royal Society of Arts and Channel 4 and currently chair of Gail’s Bakery and Brighton Pier. Last month the Brexiteer branded the coronavirus ‘Project Fear Mark II’ and called for the lockdown to end. He recently called for Johnson to ‘tell a frightened nation that its fears are out of proportion’.

Devi Sridhar

Professor at University of Edinburgh where she is chair of Global Public Health. Recently tweeted that ‘without [a] package of public health measures in place, the past seven weeks of lockdown will have been completely pointless’.

• Question Time airs at 10.45pm on Thursday on BBC One and at 11.25pm on BBC One Northern Ireland.