BBC Question Time (BBCQT) is not known for a) balance on its panels, nor b) balance in its audience. So it comes as little surprise that on Thursday 21 March’s episode an audience member who praised a Tory mayor was in fact mates with said Tory mayor – with her husband being a business associate of his.
BBCQT: another day, another plant
If you watched 21 March’s episode of BBCQT from Middlesborough, you couldn’t have missed the woman in the shocking pink scarf. Not only was her scarf shocking – but her comments on Tory Mayor of Tees Valley Ben Houchen clearly shocked the audience into hysterics, too:
So BBC question time was in the Boro last night and a lady said that Ben Houchen “ is a man of our time and a man of our town” I am not laughing but the audience & panel did.@carolvorders @raycasey2003 @skatothecore @TeesVMonitor @utb_smith @GreckoMedia @Conservatives pic.twitter.com/aMEyBedKhr
— Teesside_Rambo (@Teeside_Rambo) March 22, 2024
However, all was not what it seemed – with eagled-eyed activists on X rumbling pink-scarf woman fairly promptly:
The full clip of pink scarf lady Dawn Robinson. The wife of Brian Robinson, director of Teesside Airport Foundation and a friend of Lord Ben Houchen. Brian is sitting next to his wife.#TeessideResistance #HouchenOut#BinBen
BBC Question Time Middlesbrough 21/03/24 pic.twitter.com/ujiGC2AY2L
— Tori (@skatothecore) March 22, 2024
Yes, that was indeed Dawn and Brian Robinson. Brian is one of the trustees of the Teeside Airport Foundation. He is also a director of a company called Goosepool – which is a holding company for the airport. Teeside Airport is the pet project of Houchen. Ergo – Tory plant in the BBCQT audience.
Houchen and Teeside Airport
However, the story is much more complicated than that. It appears to be a tale of public money going to private companies also under the guise of a charitable foundation – with Houchen at the centre of it (and Brian Robinson not too far away).
Tees Valley Monitor and North East Bylines have done some excellent investigative work into this – which you can read here and here.
The point being, that Dawn Robinson’s waxing lyrical of Houchen on BBCQT was little more than propaganda for a mayor who has a seeming scandal rumbling in the background and skeletons waiting to come out of the closet.
This is par for the course with BBCQT – whether it be not-so-ordinary members of the ‘public’ in the audience, or the same, unbalanced guest on the panel – as the Canary has repeatedly documented.
A man of out time? BBCQT nailed it.
However, perhaps the scandal with shocking pink scarf lady and Tees Valley mayor Houchen might be a bit bigger than just the local airport. For some reason, Houchen’s wife got a job in government – given to her by a Tory Lord who had also donated to Ben Houchen:
Wharton was a bad enough appointment but he then interviewed Rachel Houchen the wife of his mate, Ben Houchen to whom he’d made political donations Rachel Houchen, for the role of non-executive director of the Office for Students
— Fionna O'Leary,
(@fascinatorfun) January 30, 2023
A “man of our time”, Dawn Robinson cooingly declared on BBCQT. She was ironically right – given Houchen is allegedly up to his neck in dodgy business practices and nepotism.
Featured image via the Canary
By Steve Topple
This post was originally published on Canary.
