With the new year starting, the BBC‘s flagship politics show – Question Time – is back. And on January 10, Fiona Bruce hosted the show for the first time.
But the new host wasn’t the most memorable thing from the show. Instead, a devastating attack on Theresa May and her government will live long in the memory.
Stop feeling sorry for Theresa May
After a somewhat tedious back and forth exchange on Brexit, a member of the audience laid into Theresa May. She opened by saying:
Firstly, could we get over feeling sorry for Theresa May?
When pressed by Bruce as to whether she ever feels sorry for May, she slammed May’s record on migration and the Brexit negotiations:
No, I don’t feel sorry for her. She’s the woman who for many, many years has led the hostile environment for migrants in this country, which resulted in the Windrush generation [scandal]. It’s a disgrace.
She’s the person who created her very specific red lines on immigration in the ECJ [European Court of Justice] which have created the negotiation mess that we’re in. She triggered Article 50 when she had no plan.
And as to criticising the EU on this: there are 27 other countries in the EU. They have been completely united on this. We do not even have a cabinet that can unite.
Her contribution was met with huge applause and cheers from the rest of the audience. You can watch it in full here:
A bad week for the government
This attack comes after a particularly bad week for the government over its Brexit plans. First, parliament voted to make a no-deal Brexit less likely by restricting the government’s ability to raise taxes in the event of there not being a deal. Then, MPs also voted to require May to bring a new Brexit deal back to parliament within three days if her current proposals fail to receive a majority in the House of Commons.
Both of these votes were major defeats for the government and May. They were only passed due to a number of Conservative MPs voting against the government.
The government is in crisis over Brexit. And with parliament set to vote on May’s Brexit deal on 15 January, there’s no indication things will get any easier for her. But as the member of the audience on Question Time showed, May’s poor record means we shouldn’t feel at all sorry for her.
Featured image via screengrab.
