THE BBC’s Question Time is coming under huge pressure to start providing viewers with answers after after it featured a failed Scottish Ukip candidate in the audience for the FOURTH time.

Billy Mitchell won a huge round of applause from a Unionist-heavy audience for his minute and a half long rant attacking the SNP’s push for independence.

But eagle-eyed watchers recognised the man from his contributions to the show when it came to Stirling in 2013, and in 2016, and then from when it was in Kilmarnock in 2017.

According to the journalist Pennie Taylor, Mitchell was also in the audience for a pilot episode of the new BBC Scotland channel’s own version of Question Time, which was filmed on Wednesday night.

A BBC spokesperson said they were “investigating”.

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Mitchell, whose Facebook page seems to suggest he spends most of his time in Russia, is also a drummer with the Livingston True Blues loyalist flute band.

He’s also used his social media to post support for the Ulster Young Militants, the youth wing of unionist terrorist organisations, UDA. He’s no fan of catholics, using the word “Taig” in one online comment.

Mitchell picked up just 34 votes when standing for Ukip in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill in 2013

Question Time’s producers, Mentorn, ask all those applying for the show to say whether they have previously been in the audience, and if they have any links to a political party.

On Thursday night’s show Mitchell, who describes himself as Orange Jacket Man because he wears an orange jacket, was selected from the audience to speak, and accused the SNP of being “hypocritical” in criticising Theresa May handling of Brexit.

In a contribution that lasted more than a minute, he criticised SNP MSP panel member Fiona Hyslop.

The SNP's Gavin Newlands slammed the BBC broadcast

“I think it’s actually a bit rich coming from the SNP talking about leaving without a deal or a strategy. Where was the SNP strategy in 2014? You didn’t even know what currency you were going to use, you were told by the EU that you don’t automatically get back in, there was no hard independence or soft independence – it was independence or nothing.

“What are you criticising Brexit about? You are so guilty, hypocritical about the indyref – there was no deal.

“You had no deal, you had no currency, you told us oil was going to be a million pound a barrel. Now you can get a barrel for a tenner down the Barras. No deal, no plan, absolutely useless. You never listened.

“Brussels told you you’re not getting back in, you’re not getting to use the UK pound, we’re not listening – you just don’t listen.

“You’re losers, you need to get voted out and leave Scotland to prosper.”

READ MORE: Here's the BBC's one-line response to our Question Time queries

Hyslop told the man he had made “a slight exaggeration.”

“We had a White Paper on independence. Whether you liked it or not there were 600 pages of it,” she said.

SNP MP Gavin Newlands called the show a “sham”.

He tweeted: “Anybody watching @bbcquestiontime from anywhere else in UK would be astonished, astonished, that @theSNP has won 10 elections in a row & that 45% of Scots voted for independence (& it currently polls 45-50%).

Tory MSP Murdo Fraser came to the show’s defence: “It’s tempting to ridicule Nat reactions to @bbcquestiontime last night from Motherwell, and crazy talk about BBC bias, rigged audience & #SectarianJacket, they reveal something more serious: slowly & steadily Scotland is turning against them, and they know it.”