The BBC has been called out for booking a Reform councillor for an edition of Question Time in Scotland, where Reform have no elected members.
Glasgow councillor Thomas Kerr, who defected from the Tories to Reform, was part of the Question Time panel on Thursday night from St Andrews.
He was joined by Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Tory MP Andrew Bowie and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch.
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But several people questioned Kerr’s inclusion when Reform have never won an election in Scotland. Every one of Reform UK’s Scottish politicians are defectors from the Tories or Scottish Labour.
There was no representative from the Scottish Greens or the Scottish Lib Dems on Thursday’s programme, despite the fact these parties more have more elected representatives than Reform.
Responding to a post announcing Kerr’s appearance on the Question Time panel, one person wrote on social media: “Why? He’s a local Councillor, not even elected for RefUK. The #LibDems have 6 Scottish MPs, and the #GreenParty have 8 MSPs. RefUK are an irrelevance.”
Someone else asked: “Why is there no representative of the Scottish Greens? Especially since they were until recently in government in Scotland.”
A third said: “There are 7 Green MSPs, 5 LibDem MSPs. No representation. There are NO Reform MSPs but Kerr gets a seat at the table, he finished third in the recent Hamilton by-election. What’s going on?”
The BBC’s decision to platform Reform on the programme was criticised by Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, who labelled it “bizarre.”
He told the National: “Reform and the politics they represent are a direct threat to Scotland. Long before his rise in the opinion polls, the BBC gave Nigel Farage an extraordinarily high profile, as one of the most regular faces at the Question Time table. Now, they are doing the same in Scotland where his latest political vehicle has never had so much as a local councillor elected.
“It is frankly bizarre that the BBC has chosen to platform a representative of a party with zero electoral track record, and a party whose politics have been shown to be dishonest, divisive and dangerous.”
In a post on X, SNP MSP James Dornan wrote: “Once again we see the once unknown Tory councillor Thomas Kerr on BBC. I have no doubt at all that him deserting that sinking ship to join Reform had absolutely nothing to do with it of course.”
Meanwhile, Scottish Greens councillor Jon Molyneux said: “Thomas Kerr has more time for TV cameras than he does for his constituents. He’s not contributed to a council meeting for six months.
“Too much like hard work or running scared? He should do the job taxpayers pay him for and open up his snake oil to proper scrutiny.”