Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide.
Fiona Bruce will be in Elgin, Moray with a panel including MP Bim Afolami, MSP Richard Leonard, MSP John Swinney, MP Christine Jardine and Eilidh Douglas.
Moray voted to Remain by 50.1%, swinging it by just 122 votes.
Bim Afolami, Conservative MP Hitchin and Harpenden
Though he voted Remain, Afolami has previously had a £2,000 subscription to the European Research Group, which he cancelled after his local paper published his expenses. Since then he has mostly voted with the government on Brexit issues, including voting for Theresa May’s deal at the first request, but against a no-deal. As an election candidate he refused to commit to naming his favourite cafe in Hitchin, so don’t expect him to come off the fence much about Brexit tonight. “What I would say is that the places I have had coffee – it’s been as good coffee as anywhere else,” he said, memorably.
Richard Leonard, MSP, Central Scotland, Leader, Scottish Labour
Leonard’s first job as leader of the Scottish Labour Party was discussing whether to suspend Kezia Dugdale for going on I’m a Celebrity in 2017. Just shy of calling himself a Corbynista, he’s on the left of the party and was one of only three MSPs who voted against a motion protesting the triggering of Article 50. He voted Remain, but doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about it. He’s against a Scottish independence referendum, saying the fallout of severing ties with the UK would be worse than Brexit. The most interesting fact the New Statesman could find about him is that he carries two handkerchiefs.
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John Swinney, MSP Perthshire North SNP, Deputy First Minister of Scotland
Pro-Remain Swinney, who joined the SNP at the age of 15, wants an independent Scotland in the EU. He has spoken out in the past against a Westminster Brexit bill that he said retrieved too much control in policy areas devolved to Scotland. He’s stated many times the harm Brexit will do, in no-deal or just any form, and has been consistently critical of Westminster’s handling of Brexit.
Christine Jardine, Scottish Liberal Democrat MP, Edinburgh West
Jardine has never rebelled against her party. Yesterday on Sky News, she said “the momentum is with Remain and a second referendum”, arguing that a People’s Vote is the only way for the government to break the deadlock. She has dismissed the idea that Scottish independence is a viable way back into the EU, as she says the country may not meet all the membership criteria on its own. She can be expected to coast on the Lib Dems’ current wave of success as much as she can tonight.
Eilidh Douglas, solicitor
Brexiteer Douglas is a vice chair of Amnesty UK, and thinks people should stop labelling Brexit as a “nasty” far-right project. She’s Conservative, supports Scottish independence, and wants a no-deal Brexit. An experienced panellist, she’ll hold up the Leave end of the debate with a bit more verve than the politicians. “I time-record my whole day in units of 6 minutes!” she said on Twitter yesterday, in an exceptionally niche solicitor’s in-joke about ECJ directives.
– Question Time airs at 10.35pm on BBC One, and in Northern Ireland at 11.15pm