BBC Question Time returns tonight with a panel set to discuss the latest news in the UK’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic with roadmaps revealed this week.
Scotland and England revealed their route maps out of lockdown this week.
Fiona Bruce will one again return chair and lead the panel through the hottest talking points in politics.
Nicola Sturgeon outlined three key dates up to the end of April where lockdown measures will be eased, including schools and socialising, while Boris Johnson outlined dates that his government aimed to ease off restrictions.
READ MORE: How Scotland’s lockdown plan compares to England's roadmap
With all this and more set to be debates on BBC Question Time, we take a look at who is on the panel and what viewers can expect.
On Question Time tomorrow, Fiona will be hearing from @grantshapps, @AnnelieseDodds, @tonydanker, @DrJoGrady and Jeremy King.
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) February 24, 2021
Join us at 10:45pm on @BBCOne. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/XKoMF9k4z5
Grant Shapps
The UK Secretary for Transport will be on the Question Time panel this evening as the UK Government’s representative. One of the hot topics that viewers can expect is summer holidays and travel post lockdown, with reports suggesting that England has seen a surge in the number of summer holidays booked. The former Conservative chairman, who was vaccinated yesterday, has previously called for members of the public to hold off on booking their holidays. It was announced this week that he would be running a Global Travel Taskforce to facilitate return to international travel while still managing risk from imported cases of Covid.
Just received first #Covid jab after getting call from GP Surgery to attend.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 24, 2021
Double-checked I was in line for vaccine & NHS confirmed it was due to cancer treatment I received over two-decades ago.
Key message from NHS is- get yourself vaccinated the moment you're offered it. pic.twitter.com/ABAKjp09WE
The MP for Welywn Hatfield since 2005 also made headlines recently when he said that the UK couldn’t close its borders like Australia because it was an island saying: “But, of course, we wouldn’t be safe, because we are an island nation, unlike Australia or something which is an entire continent. “That means that we need to get medicines in, we need to get food in, we need to get our raw materials in, sometimes we have to move people around, scientists and others.”
Following @BorisJohnson's #RoadMap I will launch new ✈️Global Travel Taskforce✈️ to facilitate return to international travel while still managing risk from imported cases & Variants of Concern. Taskforce will report on 12 Apr.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) February 22, 2021
International Travel resume no earlier than 17 May.
Shapps has never rebelled against the current Conservative Government and stunned ITV viewers over the free school meals debate when he responded when asked to explain what could possibly be more important than ensuring a child has a meal with "Well, providing a cancer operation.”
Annelise Dodds
The Shadow Chancellor and MP for Oxford East will be on the Question Time panel representing Labour and Sir Keir Starmer. The MP, who was formerly an MEP has been vocal on offering more support for charities and businesses in light of the ongoing lockdown and has also called for tax relief and furlough to continue in an effort to aid businesses. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme following Boris Johnson’s announcement she said: “Yet again we have seen the announcement of an approach to restrictions and a timescale for restrictions but without that clarity about business support. This is now I think the fourth time we have had that kind of pattern.”
“Businesses have been put through an enormous amount of uncertainty."
Next Wednesday’s Budget is a fork in the road. The Chancellor needs to learn from the failures of the last ten years and take a different path – to a better, more secure economic future. pic.twitter.com/1mVYCS2nyI
— Anneliese Dodds 💙 (@AnnelieseDodds) February 24, 2021
She added: "They should know now the business rates holiday will continue, the VAT reduction for hospitality businesses will continue, and that there will be a continuation of a furlough scheme – a reformed one – but that it will be there while the restrictions continue.”
Dodds also outlined Labour’s economic strategy this week and has never rebelled against her party in the current government.
Tony Danker
The Director General at the CBI will appear on Question Time tonight to offer insight into the financial impact of Covid-19 and the ongoing restrictions. The former adviser to the treasury under Alastair Darling was also the former head of strategy at the Guardian newspaper. This week, Danker, who grew up in Belfast, praised the road map out of lockdown from Boris Johnson, saying: "The Prime Minister's roadmap offers hope that the country can get back to business in the coming months.
"It is a good starting point to the hard yards ahead and caution is rightly the watchword. Business backs the step-by-step approach to re-opening and put an end to damaging stop-start restrictions.
"We now need to turn this roadmap into genuine economic momentum. The Budget is the second half of this announcement - extending business support in parallel to restrictions will give firms a bridge to the other side."
READ MORE: Business leaders criticise Nicola Sturgeon route map
Dr Jo Grady
The General Secretary for the University and College Union will also be on the BBC panel offering insight on education and the impact the road map out of lockdown will have. Dr Grady, who has lectured on employment relations, has said that bringing more students back to campuses at the same time that schools and colleges were reopening was “irresponsible” adding that “pushing students and staff back on-site increases the risk of more Covid outbreaks and threatens to undo the country’s hard work to get infection rates down.”
Jeremy King
Restaurateur Jeremy King will complete the BBC Question Time panel, with the man who opened the Ivy and has 40 years of experience in the restaurant industry will offer his insight into how the restrictions and road map will impact the sector. He has been critical of the new road map writing in the Daily Mail that “the goalposts have been moved abruptly, and we are now told we have to endure another three months of ruinous delay.”
He added: "Mr Johnson is gambling with the health of the hospitality sector – he cannot know how many of these business will ever reopen.
"I can tell him bluntly: significant numbers of the businesses currently drawing down furlough money will never actually reopen because they are holed below the financial waterline."
Question Time airs at 10:45pm on BBC One.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here