BBC Question Time is arguably the foremost political panel discussion in the UK. The programme first aired in 1979 and, while viewing figures have declined in recent years, it continues to enjoy audiences around the million mark and above.

According to the programme’s official website, “Question Time aims to select a panel with a broad range of views, knowledge and experience”.

Is this the case?

Our previous study on Question Time guest selection bias took a close look at 10 episodes and concluded that the privately-educated, Oxbridge graduates and top-10% UK earners were among the groups heavily over-represented on the panel.

We have now gone a step further and studied an entire year of the programme – all 39 episodes that aired in 2021 – to obtain a full overview.

Our findings make for interesting reading…

Only 2 trade unionists/worker representatives appeared on Question Time in 2021, compared with 27 employers/employer representatives

Only 3 journalists who primarily work for left-wing outlets appeared on Question Time in 2021, compared with 20 journalists who primarily work for right-wing outlets

Millionaires, the privately-educated and Oxbridge graduates were also grotesquely over-represented in 2021

Read on for our findings in full…

METHOD

We used fairly straightforward methodology for this study. For each episode, we marked panel members as either politicians, right-wing journalists, left-wing journalists, business representatives, worker representatives, academic/medical or “other”.

We allocated participants into each category based on their main current job. This was usually straightforward – MPs, for example, make up the majority of most panels and were classed as politicians – but figures like Michael Portillo, who has worked in business, politics and the media, were classed according to a judgment of their main current interest. We were assisted in this by the official Question Time panel releases for each show, which also make a judgement on each guest (Portillo was a “broadcaster” on the BBC panel release).

In order to separate journalists into “left-wing” and “right-wing” as objectively as possible, we identified the main outlet they work for (again, assisted by the BBC, who often categorise – e.g. “Fraser Nelson, The Spectator”) and looked for how that outlet was rated for bias on Media Bias Fact Check. Those who primarily work for a “right-wing” outlet were classed as such; those who primarily work for a “left-wing” outlet were classed as such; those who work for an equal mixture of left-wing and right-wing outlets or for an outlet rated “neutral” by Media Bias Fact Check were scored for both left and right to equal the results.

Business representatives were classed as anyone who owns a business or leads an organisation that acts on behalf of businesses (e.g. The National Farmers Union or CBI). Worker representatives were trade unionists or similar (e.g. Donna Kinnair of the Royal College of Nursing – not technically a trade union but acting as a voice for a significant worker group).

As well as scoring panel participants on their main job, we also looked at whether they were privately-educated, attended an Oxbridge University and whether they were a verified millionaire. All three are criteria which mark candidates as “elite” and/or representative of a privileged sector of society. Identifying the schooling and university panellists attended was not challenging or controversial, however we imposed criteria for determining if they were a millionaire: an article had to be found on an established source (most commonly a mainstream newspaper that would be subject to pushback if it misrepresented a high-profile individual) that classed the panellist as a “millionaire”. All sources are linked to on our results document, which you can access in full here.

So…what did we find?

Results

A total of 194 panellists appeared on BBC Question Time across the 39 episodes that aired in 2021 (some guests appeared more than once, e.g. cabinet ministers like Nadhim Zahawi, but were counted as fresh data each time since their voice/perspective counted equally on both shows).

Out of the 194 guests:

102 were politicians

20 were journalists for a right-wing outlet

3 were journalists for a left-wing outlet

2 were journalists for a neutral outlet

27 were business representatives

2 were worker representatives

18 were academic/medical professionals

20 were “other” (mostly cultural figures such as authors)

That’s correct, in 2021 BBC Question Time featured almost 7 times as many journalists from right-wing outlets than left-wing outlets (20 to 3)

It featured ONLY 2 worker representatives in the entire year, but 13.5 times as many appearances by business owners, employers and business representatives (27)

We are not making these figures up. The dataset shows only two appearances by worker representatives (Donna Kinnair of the Royal College of Nursing on 14/01/2021 and Jo Grady of the University and College Union on 25/02/2021), while wealthy business owners and chief executives like Deborah Meaden, Stephen Fitzpatrick, Peter Borg Neal and Theo Paphitis appeared on most episodes. Theo Paphitis appeared TWICE (04/03/2021 and 02/12/2021) – as an individual, Paphitis made as many Question Time appearances in 2021 as worker representatives COMBINED!

And there’s more…

77 out of the 194 guests (39.7%) were privately educated

This contrasts with 7% of the population as a whole (source)

56 out of the 194 guests (28.9%) attended Oxford or Cambridge University

This contrasts with 1% of the population as a whole (source)

36 out of the 194 guests (18.6%) were verified millionaires

This contrasts with less than 10% of the population

Questions for the BBC

1. How can the BBC justify over-representing employers compared to workers by a factor of 13.5?

This figure is outrageous in itself, even more so when we consider the fact that workers vastly outnumber employers in the nation as a whole. In order to be representative of the population, the Question Time panel would have to favour workers by a factor of 13.5 or more. The fact that the ratio operates in the inverse is damning evidence of the BBC favouring the voice/perspective of elites.

2. How do the BBC explain the fact that journalists from right-wing outlets feature on the panel almost 7 times as often as journalists from left-wing outlets?

While it is accepted that the press generally leans to the right in the UK (thanks to billionaire ownership), the BBC’s role is to provide balance and it could easily step in and do so here. We note that in 2021 the BBC gave a voice to relatively obscure journalists for right-wing outlets like Spiked Magazine’s Ella Whelan (23.2K Twitter followers) and Sun/Telegraph/GB News journalist Olivia Utley (22.1K Twitter followers). Where were the BBC Question Time invites for Owen Jones (1 million Twitter followers), George Monbiot (549.4K Twitter followers), Ash Sarkar (401K Twitter followers) and Aaron Bastani (106K Twitter followers)?

3. What steps will the BBC take to ensure that their leading political panel discussion reflects the socio-economic diversity of the nation rather than a narrow sector of privileged, expensively-educated elites?

BBC Director General Tim Davie conceded shortly after his appointment that “socio-economic diversity, different types of people, different voices” was a “big issue” for the BBC and indicated that employment practices (the proportion of Oxbridge graduates the corporation hires) would have to change to correct this. Surely changes also have to occur on BBC panel shows and in the wider selection of voices that appear on the BBC.

Conclusion

We have written previously about how bias in the media is often misrepresented as a “left-wing” or “right-wing” issue when, in fact, the real bias is elites versus the population.

Our Question Time 2021 research emphasises this.

The BBC promoted the voice of employers 13.5 times more than the voice of employees (despite the latter vastly outnumbering the former) and gave a disproportionate platform to the privately-educated, Oxbridge educated and millionaires.

There does also appear to be an element of left-right bias at work. Specifically, Question Time producers look to have favoured journalists from right-wing outlets while declining representation to left-wing journalists, including those whose large social media followings indicate a level of interest in their voice that a number of the selected right-wing panellists lack.

All of the above is – predictably – great value for elites, looking to manufacture consent for their policies. Not such great value for the licence fee paying masses.

Have any thoughts on BBC Question Time’s 2021 panels? If so, please let us know in the comments below. You can also subscribe to our mailing list and receive a monthly Free Press update direct to your mailbox!