In early 1981,
David Steel declared his support in principle for "a marriage" between the
Liberal Party and any party which might be formed by the
Gang of Four;
David Owen, who was also on the programme, said he could see advantages in an "electoral alliance" between them. This prefigured the period 1983–1987 when Owen and Steel were Leaders of the
SDP–Liberal Alliance and tension grew over whether their deal was a prelude to a merger of the parties or merely a temporary electoral pact. During the
1983 election campaign,
Conservative Foreign Secretary Francis Pym was asked by an A-level student named Andy Davis about the implications of the Conservatives winning the election with a landslide victory. He began by casting doubt on the likelihood of this happening and then observed "I think landslides on the whole don't produce successful governments".
Margaret Thatcher later wrote that the remark "struck a wrong note": "people drew the inference that he did not want us to win a large majority". Following the election (won by the Conservatives on a landslide) she sacked him as
Foreign Secretary, partly because of his gaffe. In a 1984 edition,
Alan Clark, a junior government Minister at the time, was openly critical of a government decision to buy a foreign-made missile system, prompting guest host
Sue Lawley to ask the audience, "Is there anyone here who wishes to defend the government on this, because its Minister doesn't?" A 1994 edition was notable for a confrontation between
Jeffrey Archer and the historian
David Starkey over the age of homosexual consent. After arguing that 18 should be the age of consent, Archer was attacked by Starkey who told him: "Englishmen like you enjoy sitting on the fence so much because you enjoy the sensation." Archer replied "I enjoyed the very clever way you got a laugh ... I was not sitting on the fence and I was not compromising ... you don't have the right to doubt my beliefs and think just because you are an expert in this subject I don't have the right to say what I feel or get a cheap laugh out of it. I stand by 18 and I mean it." The programme broadcast on 13 September 2001, which was devoted to the political implications of the
September 11 attacks, featured many contributions from members of the audience who were anti-American, expressing the view that "the United States had it coming". The BBC received more than 2,000 complaints and later apologised to viewers for causing offence, stating that the edition should not have been broadcast live, but rather should have been recorded and edited. In 2002, the editor of
Private Eye,
Ian Hislop, made an open attack on
Jeffrey Archer, who had been imprisoned for
perjury, when his wife
Mary Archer was a fellow panellist. She was noticeably angry that the issue had been raised and criticised Hislop after the recording had finished. In March 2007, an Iraq Special was broadcast, featuring
Tony Benn,
Benazir Bhutto,
Des Browne,
Liam Fox,
Charles Kennedy and, via
video link from
Washington, D.C.,
John Bolton. The episode is featured clashes between Benn and Bolton. On 11 October 2007, former editor of
The Sun newspaper
Kelvin MacKenzie appeared on the programme in
Cheltenham and launched an attack on Scotland. During a debate about tax, MacKenzie claimed that "Scotland believes not in entrepreneurialism like London and the south east... Scots enjoy spending it (money) but they don't enjoy creating it, which is the opposite to down south." The comments came as part of an attack on
Prime Minister Gordon Brown who MacKenzie said could not be trusted to manage the British economy because he was "a Scot" and a "socialist", and insisting that this was relevant to the debate. Fellow panellist
Chuka Umunna from the
think tank Compass called his comments "absolutely disgraceful", and booing and jeering were heard from the Cheltenham studio audience. The BBC received 350 complaints and MacKenzie's comments drew widespread criticism in both Scotland and England. On 3 July 2008, it was reported that the BBC Trust's editorial complaints unit had cleared the programme of any wrongdoing.
Question Time then proceeded to broadcast the following question from Nick Hartley as part of the programme on the same evening: "After the media coverage of [Andy] Murray's rise and fall, are we now to infer that the English resent the Scots more than the Scots resent the English?" MacKenzie reappeared on the programme in
Cardiff on 17 May 2012. After he was elected to the European Parliament,
Nick Griffin the leader of the
British National Party was invited onto
Question Time for the first time, to appear on 22 October 2009. The decision led to
controversy and political debate. Hundreds of people protested outside
BBC Television Centre as the edition was filmed; six people were arrested after 25 protesters forced their way into the main reception. The edition attracted eight million viewers, and also drew a large number of complaints as a result of its content. Griffin himself said that he would make a formal complaint to the BBC for the way he believed he was treated by the show's other guests and the audience, who he described as a "lynch mob." A special edition of the programme was aired on 11 August 2011 following the
outbreak of rioting which had occurred during the previous weekend and earlier that week.
Question Time had been off air for its annual summer break at the time and the edition was scheduled at short notice due to the English riots. An appearance by
George Galloway on the edition of 5 February 2015 recorded in
Finchley gained much negative comment before the broadcast. Inviting Galloway, a politician who has been outspoken about Israel, onto the programme was thought to be provocative and insensitive because Finchley has a large Jewish minority. Galloway, who was heckled during a discussion about antisemitism, thought he had been defamed by a question posed to him, which insinuated that he should share some of the blame for a rise in antisemitic incidents during 2014. On 23 November 2017 the programme was shortened because an audience member became ill and could not be safely moved. On 19 March 2020 the programme broadcast from
Weston-super-Mare was the first without an audience, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. On 26 March 2020 the programme moved to a semi-permanent home at the
IMG Studios at
Stockley Park in London as a measure to prevent unnecessary travel during the Coronavirus outbreak, the show followed a different format with no audience, the number of panellists reduced to four and the removal of the desk table, with the panellists and host now sitting on chairs in a semi-circle, 2m apart from one another in order to observe social distancing rules. At the same time, the programme moved to a new, temporary timeslot of 8pm, so that it could be broadcast live and allow viewers to submit their own questions to be answered on the programme. Four-time
Formula One World Champion and
Grand Prix Drivers' Association, the trade union for F1, director
Sebastian Vettel appeared on the 12 May 2022 edition, which was broadcast from
Hackney. ==Audience figures==