Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce found herself forced to cut off two guests as their immigration debate became intense.
QT: Fiona Bruce intervenes between Nigel Huddelston and Sonia Sodha
Fiona Bruce found herself forced to cut off Question Time guests Nigel Huddelston and Sonia Sodha as they became involved in a heated debate about immigration issues and where the blame lies. As they spoke over each other, the 61-year-old veteran presenter raised her hands and said: “OK alright, I’m going to move this on”. Meanwhile, the panellists continued to attempt to speak over each other.
Taking a breath as calm was restored she smiled at the camera and quipped: “Is this what it’s going to be like for the rest of the programme!” Her intervention came amidst a discussion on immigration during which Huddleston said: “I do think the reality is that Labour had virtually no plans for anything.
“They spent 14 years in opposition and came into power and didn’t have a clue what they wanted to do.” Sodha tackled him saying: “It’s rich..coming from you. You were in government for 14 years – the state of the care sector. Sorry, it’s not on this government. It’s on, you guys.”
Fiona Bruce intervened as Question Time got heated (Image: BBC)
The show was coming from Aldergate and Huddelston and Sodha were joined on the panel by Peter Kyle and Alex Depledge. The discussion had started when a woman in the audience had compared Labour’s language about immigrants to Enoch Powell
“It is an it is miles away from (that),” Kyle said. “We have to speak in a language which does capture the mood of the country, but when you look at what we’re trying to do, it is about fairness. It is about respect for those people coming to our country, because a lot of the people who are coming in who do not speak English and are not qualified for the work will be trapped in communities.
“A lot of them are women who are not speaking English, who are there with families. That makes them extremely vulnerable. To live in a country where you’re not speaking English, you’re not able to work, you are doomed to a life of worklessness in a community which isn’t fully integrated into the even the neighbours in your in your street. That’s that’s immigration at its worst, and we’re trying to tackle that. That’s what we’re trying to do,” he argued.
Sodha agreed to an extent responding: “I think what Keir Starmer said was a million miles away from what Enoch Powell said, but I’ve still got a big problem with the language…of immigration having caused incalculable damage. I think that is buying into a populist rhetoric that immigration is to blame for everything going on in this country…That’s what it implies, doesn’t it?
Nigel Huddleston got into a heated discussion with another panelist on Question Time (Image: BBC)
“Immigration has upsides and downsides. It’s good that we talk about them as a democracy, but it is not good to scapegoat immigration, and hence immigrants for everything that’s going wrong, including the state of the economy, the state of public services, the state of housing.
“And when you look at the populist right, I think they are really using immigration as a scapegoat for all of these things, and that isn’t good enough from our prime minister.
“It’s good that we talk about them as a democracy, but it is not good to scapegoat immigration, and hence immigrants for everything that’s going wrong, including the state of the economy, the state of public services, the state of housing.
“And when you look at the populist right, I think they are really using immigration as a scapegoat for all of these things, and that isn’t good enough from our prime minister,” she said.
