Who is on the BBC Question Time panel tonight?

Grant Shapps

Who? Transport secretary

Where is he on Brexit? Remain voter who is now one of the cabinet’s most ebullient hard Brexiteers

Brought back into frontline politics by Boris Johnson after being humiliatingly demoted from the cabinet by David Cameron in 2015, Shapps wrote after the referendum: “I was a Remainer, but I have embraced the new direction of the country. I am backing Brexit all the way, as hard as you like, and I’m bullish about the UK’s future.” Like Groucho Marx, those are his principles, and if you don’t like them… well, he has others. Best known for living a double life as an internet marketing salesman called Michael Green while he was an MP, something he described as a “joke” or “normal”, which it is most definitely is, obviously. As Johnson’s transport secretary he is likely to be tasked with kicking issues like HS2 and Heathrow expansion down the road for the next decade.

Drew Hendry

Who? SNP spokesman on transport at Westminster

Where is he on Brexit? Like the overwhelming majority of his party, pro-Remain

MP since 2015 and a former council leader, Hendry has been a vocal supporter of a second referendum. Said in April that the people of Scotland must choose between “Britain and Brexit” or “Scotland and Europe”, saying: “We have seen cross-party votes in the Scottish Parliament ignored, the MPs that represent Scotland ignored in this process, and we have seen the 62% remain vote in Scotland ignored by Westminster.” Added that being an independent country would “better match” Scotland. “It has got to the stage now where something has to be done to give the people of Scotland the choice between the future with Britain and Brexit, or Scotland and Europe.” The chair of Parliament’s all-party parliamentary group for the terminally ill, he was most recently in the news when a chip shop in his constituency, McLeod’s Fish and Chips, won the Best Fish and Chips in Scotland award. “It’s great that we can now boast that we are home to the nation’s best chippy,” he beamed.

Helen Lewis

Who? Staff writer at The Atlantic

Where is she on Brexit? Remainer broadly on Labour’s soft left

Former Daily Mail journalist who repented and joined the New Statesman, becoming deputy editor before joining weighty American tome The Atlantic, Lewis is unsurprisingly anti-Brexit, saying that “the entire country is strapped to a runaway mine cart, and the only option seems to be clinging on and hoping that the eventual crash leads to injuries rather than fatalities. Bailing out would involve a precipitous drop into the unknown. There are no good choices”. Wrote today that “had Corbyn stepped down after the 2017 election, he might have been remembered as a principled left-winger who brought his party closer to government. By staying in place, and leading Labour to such a catastrophic loss, he will instead be condemned as the man who granted the Conservatives their second consecutive decade in power.” So pray for her Twitter mentions tonight, people. Pray for her Twitter mentions.

Michael Dobbs

Who? Conservative peer and writer of House of Cards

Where is he on Brexit? Ardent Brexiteer. Has said that the EU “serves the privileged – top politicians, civil servants, international bankers, big businessmen”. Reminder – Lord Dobbs is a Conservative member of the House of Lords

Yes, two Tory Brexiteers this week. That’ll go down well, won’t it? The writer of the original House of Cards novels and executive producer of the more recent and hugely successful US TV version, Dobbs was a long-time servant of the Conservative Party acting as an adviser to Margaret Thatcher, speechwriter, special adviser and chief of staff. Was dubbed “Westminster’s baby-faced hitman” by the Guardian. Has said Remainers “say that Britain is too insignificant on its own to succeed”, an argument made by literally nobody. And there’s more: “We are being threatened with biblical punishments, everything from a plague of boils to the elimination of our first born and – would you believe it? – even the outbreak of war.” Bonkers, then? You might think that. I couldn’t possibly comment.

Billy Bragg

Who? Singer-songwriter

Where is he on Brexit? Anti. Had called for a citizen’s assembly to solve the impasse

The closest thing Question Time could find to a spokesman for Her Majesty’s Opposition the day after a general election, the Bard of Barking was an early and vocal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, a man of unique virtue unparalleled in human history. Bragg has called him “constantly underestimated” and praised his decision to stay neutral on Brexit as “I wouldn’t be surprised if we look back on this and find that the ambiguity that everyone criticises him for is seen to be the best thing he could have done.” Hmm. Apologised last year after saying that the Jewish community had “work to do” in order to rebuild trust with Labour. Wrote a song called Full English Brexit, with lyrics such as “My neighbours don’t drink at the local/Or have kippers for breakfast like me/The food that they eat smells disgusting/They’d rather drink coffee than tea”. It’s no New England, to be fair.

Question Time is on BBC One at 8.30pm tonight