Who is on the panel of this week’s Question Time?

The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme on Thursday (10 May 2018) comes from Kettering, an area which voted 61% to Leave in the EU referendum in 2016.

On this week’s panel is:

Esther McVey

Who? Work and Pensions Secretary

Esther McVey is a Conservative party politician and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. McVey started her career working on Children’s BBC before moving to GMTV. She was first elected to Parliament in 2010. In a recent opinion piece for the Daily Express, co-authored by fellow Brexiteer Liam Fox, she claimed that ‘it is important the Government grasps the opportunities Brexit brings.’ She also said more teenagers needed Saturday and after-school jobs, as they are not ambitious or resilient enough to take over jobs which are currently filled by EU nationals.

Chuka Umunna

Who? Labour MP and chair of Leave Watch

Chuka Umunna is chair of ‘Leave Watch’ and is an anti-Brexit campaigner. The Labour MP has criticised Jeremy Corbyn for his leadership during the referendum campaign, and has defied the leadership in the Commons votes on Brexit. Umunna has most recently campaigned for a People’s Vote. This week he said that the Lords’ latest win was ‘a stunning victory for those who want to protect jobs and trade and keep our businesses linked to our biggest market.’

Alejandro Agag

Who? CEO of electric car racing championship Formula E and a former MEP of the Spanish Conservative Party

The London-based Formula E electric car racing series will leave Britain if Brexit goes ahead without a deal on tax and employment, Spanish chief executive Alejandro Agag claimed last year. Speaking to Reuters he claimed the business would probably would leave ‘overnight’ suggesting Holland or Monaco might be a better location. In 2008 GQ Magazine named Agag the Spanish ‘Businessman of the Year’.

Chloe Westley

Who? Campaign manager at the Tax Payers’ Alliance and former Vote Leave staffer

Westley is a campaigner manager at the Tax Payers’ Alliance and was a Vote Leave staffer. She once claimed in a news appearance that Boris Johnson’ is ‘one of the leaders the country really needs right now’ and said that ‘the very idea of democracy here is at stake’ with Brexit. In a follow-up tweet she said that she was ‘blown away with the arrogance of some young people who think that their votes are more important than others.’ This week Westley spoke out against a ‘citizen’s inheritance’ for 25 year olds which would have helped tackle intergenerational inequality.

Akala

Who? BAFTA and MOBO-winning rapper

Kingslee James Daley – better known as Akala – is a rapper, poet and political activist. His older sister is Ms Dynamite, who had hits back in the early 2000s. In 2016 he told NME that there was a ‘real sense of renewed racism’ after the Brexit vote and that it ‘doesn’t make Britain look very good in the world’. He pointed the finger at UKIP, the media, the Tory party and the right of the Labour Party for helping to cause Brexit. However, his criticism of politicians doesn’t end there, as he has also aimed fire at the Lib Dems, Jeremy Corbyn, and Hillary Clinton…

Question Time is on BBC One at 10.45pm on Thursday (11.15pm in Northern Ireland).

It is repeated on BBC Parliament on Sunday evenings at 6pm.

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