BBC Question Time accused of ‘coaching’ migrant as Reform MP blasts ‘headset’ | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV
BBC Question Time presenter Fiona Bruce confirmed that migrants had been invited to the program on Thursday (December 4) and asked those in the audience about their specific experiences. Bruce told a man who came to England from Iran and gave birth to a daughter in England that he invited him to the program because “everyone was talking about people like you.”
The news sparked outrage from viewers at home and many MPs, but Reform MP Richard Tice noticed headphones on a member of the audience and questioned what they were. Referring to Others also noticed the headphones and questioned whether it was a headset at all; one user called it “sad propaganda.”
Another wrote: “Good spotting I say.” A third added: “If this is true and QT viewers have been roped in to lecture taxpayers on the ECHR then the BBC’s pretense of impartiality is over.” Others claimed it looked “rehearsed”.
But some viewers disagreed about what he had in his ear, with one user writing: “This will wear badly when it’s described as ALLD or something.” Another wrote: “These are Shokz Richard – bone conduction headphones.”
One user asked Grok, X’s AI tool, what he thought the device was, and he replied: “The ear device in the photo looks like a small black headset that attaches to the ear with a thin wire or tube extending downwards. It looks like standard equipment used for simultaneous interpretation in TV debates and often provided to non-native English speakers.”
The Daily Express has contacted the BBC for comment.
Later in the show, Bruce said to the immigrant in the audience: “You came from Iran. I’m wondering what you think about this idea, because one of the things the government talks about is if countries become safe after you leave them, in your case Iran, would you be happy to go back?”
He replied: “There are two points we need to consider. Physically, the regime has changed in Iran, it is safe for people like me to return to Iran.
“But the second thing we need to pay attention to here is, I have a four-month-old daughter, she was born here. She grows up here, she’s learning English. She doesn’t know how to read or write or even speak Persian.”
The full episode can be watched on BBC iPlayer.
