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Politics
Catherine Shuttleworth
Jun 09, 2023
Question Time is marking the anniversary of Brexit with a Leave voters special
BBC Question Time
Question Time is holding a special episode to mark the seventh anniversary of Brexit.
The episode which will occur on June 22, the eve of the anniversary of the Brexit vote. It will take place in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex and the audience will be comprised exclusively of Leave voters.
In 2016, 70 per cent of people in the Clacton-on-Sea area voted to leave the European Union.
Fiona Bruce, who has been the show's moderator since 2019, announced the special episode at the end of this week's instalment saying: "We are devoting that programme to a conversation the audience of people who took that decision, and that is leave voters.
"So seven years on, how does a cross-section of people who voted to leave feel about Brexit?
"Some may have changed their minds, some may still back their original decisions. Some may be somewhere in between."
Bruce added: “So if you voted for Brexit, you live in Clacton or the wider Essex area we would love to hear from you go to the Question Time website in the usual way you can apply to be on the program. “So that's in two weeks time, on Thursday, June 22, our special Brexit Question Time.”
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However some people, especially those who oppose Brexit, have criticised the idea, calling it "bias", "exclusionary" and claiming it ignores "Remain voters, people who didn't vote, or young people and EU cities who couldn't vote".
\u201cSo to mark the anniversary of Brexit, BBC Question time is... going to exclude anyone who didn't vote for it\u201d— Adam Bienkov (@Adam Bienkov) 1686254660
\u201cThe BBC will be holding a special Question Time to mark the 7th anniversary of the Brexit referendum... reserved exclusively for Leavers.\n\nThat's right: their audience will consist entirely of people who inflicted Brexit on the rest of us.\n\nBias, much?\nhttps://t.co/QnBdpVd72P\u201d— Edwin Hayward (@Edwin Hayward) 1686295607
\u201cBig supporter of the BBC, so it\u2019s disappointing that Question Time, its flagship political panel show, is marking seven years since the disastrous decision to leave the EU by hosting an audience entirely made up of people who voted to leave the EU.\u201d— Matthew Stadlen (@Matthew Stadlen) 1686307839
\u201cSince the referendum, the BBC in general, and Question Time in particular, have treated a 52-48 result as a landslide, and the \u2018will of the people\u2019, and remain voters as irrelevant. We\u2019ve been ignored and treated as traitors. Surprisingly, we\u2019re sick of it.\u201d— Prof Paul Bernal (@Prof Paul Bernal) 1686310189
A recent YouGov survey showed that over 50% of those survey thought Britain was wrong to leave the European Union.
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