BBC Question Time returns tonight with a virtual audience quizzing the panel led by Fiona Bruce.
It has been a week that has seen the Prime Minister face questions about the refurbishment of his flat, new Covid vaccines ordered, global aid cuts, the First Minister of Northern Ireland resign, and the small matter of a Scottish election.
With no shortage of talking points, we take a look at who is on BBC Question Time this week.
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
The Government will be represented by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, with the Minister for Business, Energy and Clean Growth sitting on the panel. The Conservative MP, was elected as Member of Parliament for the Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency at the 2015 general election and has been a keen champion for COP26.
The MP has rarely rebelled against votes from the government with notable rebellions against the party including when she voted against investigations into the Iraq war and voted for requiring pub companies to offer pub landlords rent-only leases, moves which went against her fellow MPs. She almost always voted against UK membership of the EU and voted for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system
The MP recently made headlines after The Guardian reported she accepted £2,500 from Aquind last year, as part of a £10,000 donation to the Northumberland Conservatives. Her local chapter of the Tory party, the Berwick-upon-Tweed Conservative party, accepted donations totalling £17,000 from Temerko between 2013 and 2015, when Trevelyan first stood as an MP. She also defended a deal which gives the Treasury billions of pounds from a pension fund for miners.
Tomorrow on the Question Time panel, Fiona is joined by Anne-Marie Trevelyan @annietrev, @JonAshworth, Danny Sriskandarajah @dhnnjyn, @libdemdaisy and @timothy_stanley.
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) April 28, 2021
Join us Thursday at 10:45pm on @BBCOne. #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/gnhbTVN7J5
Jon Ashworth
Representing Labour on the panel is Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Jon Ashworth. The former advisor to Gordon Brown will undoubtedly attempt to scrutinise the Government on their handling of the Covid-19 crisis. The MP for Leicester South since 2011 has been exceptionally vocal on the flat row that has engulfed the Prime Minister recently with the MP accusing Boris Johnson of lying over who paid for renovations to his Downing Street flat.
The Labour MP Mr Ashworth said on the incident: "We really need to know who's given the loan, who's given the money, because we need to know who the prime minister...is beholden to. To be honest he lied yesterday - that's not good enough."
He also made headlines after he said that Labour would use upcoming NHS legislation and votes in Parliament to demand Government action for those on hospital waiting lists and was part of a heated argument on Covid passports.
Ashworth has never rebelled against his party in the current parliament.
Daisy Cooper
The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats will also sit on the BBCQT panel this evening with the MP for St Albans being the last MP on the panel. The former campaign worker in international aid, human rights and press reform has been an MP since 2019.
The Lib Dems deputy leader since 2020 has been vocal in her opposition to vaccine passports and was one of 70 MPs to sign a petition against the move. The Lib Dem education spokesperson has also called for students who have courses finishing early due to Covid to be compensated, with Cooper accusing the Government of having "forgotten” about students. She called for a review of powers “to make recommendations on how students should be reimbursed by the Government in financial and learning times”
She has never rebelled against her party in the current parliament but has voted against an equal number of electors per parliamentary constituency in the past, something that most current Liberal Democrat MPs voted for.
Danny Sriskandarajah
Oxfam GB Chief Executive Danny Sriskandarajah will also sit on the BBC Question Time panel. The former Secretary General of CIVICUS, the global alliance of civil society groups, currently sits on the UN panel on digital cooperation.
Danny Sriskandarajah has been vocal about the UK cutting spending on polio and clean water projects calling the cuts “eye-watering” and “dangerous” stating that such a move would be “likely to delay the global eradication of polio when we are so close to achieving this landmark victory against a cruel disease”.
He said: “This is yet another example of the vital, life-saving work that will stop because of reductions to overseas aid. To cut funding for water, hygiene and sanitation in the midst of a global pandemic is dangerous.
“These eye-watering cuts are bound to result in more illness as vulnerable communities are denied the clean water, safe toilets and handwashing facilities that are crucial to good health and longer term development.”
He recently made headlines stating that charities have become too similar to corporates in the way they operate.
Tim Stanley
The British journalist and historian Tim Stanley will round off the panel. The journalist for The Telegraph has written a host of books about US politics and contributed to a host of US channels including CNN. He has also presented Radio 4's Thought for the Day to BBC’s Moral Maze. A former member of the Labour Party, he stood as the Labour candidate for the constituency of Sevenoaks in 2005 but failed to be elected. He backed Brexit and has written a column defending the Prime Minister over his flat refurbishment story.
BBC Question Time is at 10:45pm on BBC One.
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