The storm around BBC Question Time has continued today as a national newspaper used their front page to challenged the corporation to "provide answers" over multiple appearances of a former UKIP candidate.
Billy Mitchell was making his fourth appearance on the show and claims he was invited to be part of the audience in Motherwell last Thursday because the area strongly supported the SNP.
According to the BBC, the application form requires prospective guests to say whether they have previously been on the show, and when.
READ MORE: Failed UKIP candidate claims he was personally invited on to BBC Question Time
Guests must also reveal who they would be most likely to vote for in a General Election, how they voted in the EU referendum, and whether they are a member of a political party.
So this one wingnut who got 34 votes as a UKIP candidate has been on #BBCQT more often than an entire political party; just three @scotgp appearances in our 20 years of getting Green MSPs elected to Holyrood. https://t.co/wUkMooHZcG
— Patrick Harvie 🇪🇺 (@patrickharvie) February 12, 2019
However, The National used their front page to demand answers from the BBC asking the following six questions:
-How do you justify going out of your way to insert Mitchell, who is well known for making bitter rants about the SNP and independence, into an audience which is supposed to be genuinely representative of Motherwell?
-How do you justify giving him airtime over people who live in the local area and want a rare chance to hold politicians to account?
-Whose decision was it to invite him on to the show?
READ MORE: Broadcasting watchdog should investigate BBC news operation, Cairncross review says
-On how many other occasions have you added somebody into a QT audience so they can deliver a particular political agenda?
Our most read story online yesterday | A failed UKIP candidate who has appeared in the BBC's Question Time audience four times has claimed he was invited on to the show. https://t.co/beGrCa6x3l
— Donald Martin, editor-in-chief (@TheHeraldEditor) February 13, 2019
-What is the procedure for selecting a Question Time audience – and did this break your own rules?
-Will you be issuing an apology to the people of Motherwell for misrepresenting them on a UK-wide channel?
READ MORE: BBC Question Time slammed after former UKIP candidate makes audience appearance for third time
A spokeswoman for the BBC said that strict rules on data protection meant they were “not able to talk about individual cases.”
She added: “Although there are no hard and fast rules about how many times someone can appear in a Question Time audience, we want to allow as many people as possible the chance to be part of the programme so we would not normally allocate a seat to someone if they had appeared recently.
“There is a detailed application process, with a request for photographic identification and every audience member is spoken to individually, sometimes by phone.
“We continually review our systems and processes in this area.”
Speaking to The Times, Mitchell said he “been subjected to a campaign of intimidation, abuse and death threats that’s been set in motion by SNP politicians indulging in dog-whistle politics.”
Other national newspapers have also been critical of BBC Question Time following the incident with the Scotsman's Lesley Riddoch calling for BBC Scotland to dump, not adapt, the tired format that dogs the UK’s flagship politics show.
The Times has also questioned the incident highlighting the story originally.
You can read the full story on The National website HERE
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