Question Time audience member breaks down in tears on BBC show
Host Fiona Bruce was back on BBC Question Time, but when one audience member started to cry she was forced to step in.
BBC’s flagship politics show Question Time aired an unexpectedly emotional moment when one audience member broke down in tears on-air. With host Fiona Bruce at the helm, the late-night programme saw a Ukrainian member of the audience shaken by the ongoing conflict with Russia as she probed politicians on their stances and described the divisions in her family since war broke out.
The episode in question aired last month on February 20th, and saw one woman in the audience admit: “I wanted to make a few points about returning to Ukraine, which is understandable-“ She was briefly interrupted by Fiona, who asked: “Is that what you would like to do? If there is peace?”
The audience member replied: “My parents live on the frontline, so…” She proceeded to break down in tears, covering her mouth with her hands and apologising as Fiona reassured her: “Please don’t apologise. If you’re happy to continue talking it’s entirely up to you.”
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She continued: “I wish I would see my family… Sorry, all together, because they are separated in occupied territory and nowadays…”
Fiona gently queried: “And you’d like to all be back together again? I’m so sorry, but thank you.” The audience member was comforted by someone sitting next to her as she continued to sob, leaving the entire panel speechless.
In last night’s episode of the show (March 20), one audience member heckled one of the panellists in a fiery clash, hitting out at MP Helen Whately as she tried to argue over the benefits system. The member of the audience shouted: “You had 13 years!”
Whately said: “We have a benefits Bill rising to over £100billion by the end of this decade, we have over 7million people claim some form of sickness benefit. And the problem with the system we have is we need it to work in a way that if you can work, we do work. But actually, if you're disabled and really can't work, you need to get support.”
Fiona reiterated the heckler’s point as Whately replied: “To that point, as I said, we actually did really substantial reforms, and the putting in place Universal Credit, something that's looked at around the world, something where Britain has led in the world in this.
"However, as I said, things changed coming out of the pandemic. What we saw specifically is an increase in people claiming benefit for mental health reasons.”
