Brighton MP appears on BBC Question Time

Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas appeared on the final episode of the BBC TV politics programme Question Time tonight (Thursday 6 July) before the start of its summer break.

The Green MP was making her 22nd appearance on the programme, having first appeared 16 years ago when she was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England.

Caroline Lucas on Question Time in Burton upon Trent

Her fellow panel members were the Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, Labour MP and Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, Daily Mirror columnist Susie Boniface and Sir Craig Oliver, former director of communications for ex-prime minister David Cameron.

Last September when Ms Lucas last went on the show, hosted by veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby, she also appeared alongside Mr Rees-Mogg.

Tonight she took him to task on debt after the panel were asked about university tuition fees. She ridiculed him for suggesting that government debt was bad but later saying that personal debt for students was ok.

The panel was also asked about Mr Cameron’s remarks about public sector pay rises. He said that it was selfish to call for higher public sector pay at the expense of sound public finances because the bill would be passed on to the next generation.

But Ms Lucas said that the former Tory prime minister was the selfish one, citing his purchase of a luxury garden shed while the likes of nurses suffered the consequences of austerity.

She spoke up for the foreign aid budget and even said that Britain should spend more to help poorer countries.

And the panel were also asked about Brexit – Britain’s exit from the European Union.

During the programme, which was filmed in Burton upon Trent, there was laughter when David Dimbleby’s mobile phone went off telling him that it was bedtime.

After his summer break, Mr Dimbleby is due to return with another panel of politicians and commentators on Thursday 14 September as the party conference season gets under way.