'The lowest bunch of gaslighting politicians in history.'

To mark the seventh anniversary of the EU referendum, the BBC ran a Question Time Brexit Special. The show took place in Clacton-on-Sea, where over 73 percent of voters supported the Leave campaign, making it the third-highest Leave vote town in the UK, behind only Boston and Skegness.

Host Fiona Bruce was joined by Tory backbencher John Redwood, businessman Ben Habib, Alastair Campbell, Labour’s Jenny Chapman, and Prof Anand Menon.

The airing of the ‘Brexit Special’ came as polling for the think-tank UK in a Changing Europe shows that only 18 percent of those who voted to Leave the EU in 2016 believe Brexit has been a success.

Centred on the divisive issue of Brexit, this week’s QT promised to invoke a lively response. We look at the key reaction to last night’s show.

Tory ministers labelled ‘cowardly’ for refusing to appear on the Brexit Special

Ahead of the show, Remainer Alastair Campbell, said it was ‘quite something’ that the government won’t be represented in front of an audience made entirely of Leave voters.

“Quite something that seven years on from their flagship ‘achievement’ they can’t face an audience made up entirely of people who voted for it.

“Anyone would think they were frit as Maggie used to say,” said Campbell.

Vocal Tory critic Carol Vorderman wrote: “This week many Tory cowardly MPs abstained from the vote about Johnson & now they can’t even face the people they lied to!!

“The lowest bunch of gaslighting politicians in history.”

Tory insiders are understood to have been worried about a “stitch-up.”

An ‘all-Brexiteer’ audience did not sit right with everyone

The Clacton-on-Sea audience was a cross-section of Leave voters, comprising of those who regret their decision, those who would still vote Leave, and others that are ‘on the fence.’

But the choice of audience didn’t go down well with everyone. Civil society campaigners, Best for Britain, tweeted: “I don’t know how special it is to ignore Remain voters, people who didn’t vote, or young people and EU citizens who couldn’t vote.”

Sentiment shared by Central Bylines, which wrote: “A very serious question to Question Time and Fiona Bruce. Why is your audience for the Brexit special all white and over 40?”

John Redwood accused of telling fibs

Panel member John Redwood, Tory MP for Wokingham and an ardent Brexiteer, who once mocked Remainers for their concerns regarding the potential long queues forming at the port of Dover, was accused of telling lies.

Some pointed to Redwood’s comments on the show last night that he never said Britain would get a free trade deal with the USA, which contrasted to earlier comments he had made that the UK would get a free trade deal with America. In response to the remarks, Dick Mackintosh tweeted: “Now we have John Redwood another bare faced liar who just tells lie after like after lie #bbcqt.”

Alastair Campbell starts trending

Alastair Campbell, the Rest is Politics podcaster who has been a fierce critic of leaving the European Union, didn’t hold back on his thoughts on Brexit. “You were lied to.. I understand why you voted for Brexit.. Johnson, Farage, these conmen were coming along and offering you something that was going to make your lives better.. I don’t blame you for voting for Brexit, I blame them for lying to you,” he told the all-Leave audience.

Following the comments, the former journalist turned strategist, quickly started trending online, with users sharing both support and disproval over the comments.

The Brexit-loving Express was quick to denounce the remarks. ‘BBC QT audience ‘blood boils’ at Campbell’s claims public was lied to over Brexit,’ was its headline following the show.  

Funny that Campbell’s comments about ‘Brexit lies’ seemed to get the biggest applause, even by a Leave-voting audience.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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