Lively political TV debate at Musselburgh Question Time

There was a lively political debate at the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh last night for BBC political panel TV show Question Time.

The political panel debated many points put forward by the audience in East Lothian, including the Prime Minister’s future, a second referendum on Scottish Independence, the state of the NHS and political rhetoric.

Host Fiona Bruce was joined on the stage by politicians Douglas Ross (Con), John Swinney (SNP) and Anas Sarwar (Lab), as well as journalist Isabel Hardman and musician Stuart Murdoch.

The first question put to the panel was “can Liz Truss unite her backbenchers and in turn calm the markets?”

The Question Time panel last night in Musselburgh were Anas Sarwar (centre) and clockwise John Swinney, Isable Hardman, Douglas Ross and Stuart Murdoch.

This led to an argument between Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross and SNP deputy leader John Swinney about the UK Government’s recent mini-budget, with audience members reacting with anger at Mr Ross and one calling for a general election - receiving loud cheers from the hall.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said the Tories are “finished” and accused them of “lying and cheating” and being “morally bankrupt”. He added that the mini-budget was “completely unforgivable”.

While Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch accused the Tories of being “tone death to the needs of ordinary people”. And he slammed their trickle-down economy vision.

Mr Ross conceded that the Prime Minister and Chancellor “need to get a grip on this”. Before saying he still thinks Liz Turss will win the next election, prompting loud laughter from the audience.

The next question was “are unionist politicians afraid of a second independence referendum?”

This, as expected, was the most heated section of the show, with Mr Sarwar calling for more powers for Holyrood and Mr Ross pointing out that Scotland already rejected independence in 2014.

However, Mr Swinney argued that his party won last year’s Scottish Parliament election with a manifesto which included holding another independence vote and that the majority of the Scottish Parliament supports independence.

Undecided voters in the audience raised concerns about the timing of a second vote and over what currency an independent Scotland would use.

Mr Swinney said an independent Scotland would continue to use the pound to begin with, adding: “People felt in 2014 that there was more financial security being part of the UK, I don’t think that’s the case now.”

Mr Murdoch accused unionists of “scaremongering” and believes Scotland would “be fine” on its own.

Ms Hardman added that there is “a huge amount of complacency at Westminster towards Scotland”.

While one audience member accused the UK Government of being “condescending” to Scotland regarding another vote.

The panel and audience also discussed Nicola Sturgeon’s “I detest the Tories” comment at the weekend, with calls from the audience to calm the rhetoric down and one claiming the First Minister made the comment “to detract from the shortcomings of her party”.

However Mr Murdoch said: “It was a rare slip-up, everyone makes mistakes.”

The programme finished with more lively debate, this time about the NHS. With Mr Sarwar claiming that staff don’t feel supported. Mr Swinney conceded that there is currently a problem with the NHS vacancy level and blamed Brexit for EU staff leaving, particularly in social care.

The debate was so lively that Ms Bruce didn’t have time to get the last question in, finishing up an interesting evening in Musselburgh.