BBC Question Time bosses have admitted presenter Fiona Bruce made a major blunder while challenging a Labour minister over the government’s tax plans.
Bruce clashed with trade minister Douglas Alexander amid mounting speculation that Rachel Reeves will put up the employers’ rate of National Insurance in the upcoming Budget.
She said Labour had been “completely clear” in their election manifesto that they would not put up NI.
“There wasn’t a paragraph that said ‘only for employees’,” she said.
But Alexander replied: “We consistently said we’re not raising taxes on working people.”
Bruce then said: “Should we be in a position where National Insurance contributions are raised for employers, in principle surely that is a breach of your manifesto?”
Alexander said voters would “understand the distinction between working people and businesses”.
The presenter replied: “But you didn’t make that distinction in the manifesto. I’ve got it here: ’we will not increase national insurance, the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, or VAT.”
However, the full sentence in the manifesto says: “Labour will not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT.”
Bruce and Alexander’s tense exchange was broadcast live on BBC iPlayer as the programme was being recorded.
But in a statement on their X page shortly afterwards, the programme said: “On the live iPlayer version of Question Time tonight, we said that in their 2024 General Election manifesto, Labour didn’t mention the phrase ‘working people’ in relation to raising National Insurance. We are happy to clarify that they did and accordingly we have taken it out of the BBC1 edition of the programme.”
Alexander replied: “I’m grateful that the programme accepts that is has made a mistake in our exchanges and that this error has now been rectified.”