Question Time: Fiona Bruce ‘clarifies’ comments made to Diane Abbott after row about Labour polling ‘We should have made that context clear, and I’m really happy to do that now’

Question Time host Fiona Bruce clarified comments she has made during a debate with Labour’s Diane Abbott after a row broke out over the shadow Home Secretary’s treatment during the show a week ago.

Ms Bruce, who was presenting her third show as the new host of the programme on Thursday night, briefly stopped the debate to address issues that had been raised after last week’s show.

She told viewers: “I just want to pick up on something from last week’s programme. There was some discussion about opinion polls, you may aware of this.”

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“I was talking about a poll that came out the day of the programme that suggested the Conservatives were ahead.”

“The shadow Home Secretary mentioned some other earlier polls which showed Labour in the lead, and we should have made that context clear, and I’m really happy to do that now.”

The BBC pointed to a YouGov published on the day of the show that put the Conservatives at 39 percent of the vote, with Labour receiving 34 percent of the vote, but trackers that use multiple polls over a longer period of time showed Labour support being very close to the Conservatives, or even ahead.

Latest Westminster voting intention (13-14 Jan)

Con – 39%

Lab – 34%

Lib Dem – 11%

Other – 16%https://t.co/r0HBldhk12 pic.twitter.com/D1BvkSKgLN — YouGov (@YouGov) January 17, 2019

The host came under fire for agreeing with the claim made by another panellist Isabel Oakeshott that Labour are “six points behind in the polls.” Ms Oakeshott lambasted Ms Abbott for calling for a general election telling her “you are way behind in the polls.”

When Ms Abbott said that Labour was at a “level pegging” with the Tories in the polls overall, Ms Bruce cut in to say: “you’re behind Diane, definitely.” Poll trackers at the time put Labour within half a decimal point of the Conservatives.

Our poll tracker puts Labour ahead of the Conservatives by a tiny 0.3%: Lab: 38.4%

Con: 38.1%

LDem: 8.6%

UKIP: 5.2%

Grn: 3.4% Keep an eye on the polls as things develop here: https://t.co/spVpGNV8oG pic.twitter.com/EqjUSw9QQo — Britain Elects (@britainelects) January 15, 2019

On top of the argument over polling, the show faced criticism from the Labour frontbencher, for her treatment during the show where she faced a hostile reception from many in the audience.

A spokesperson for Diane Abbott said in a statement: “We are appalled by the treatment of Diane Abbott on BBC’s Question Time. It was clear that a hostile atmosphere was whipped up, propped up by reports of inappropriate and sexist commentary in the audience warm-up session. A public broadcaster like the BBC, should be expected to be a model of impartiality and equality.”

“The BBC cannot claim anything of the sort when analysis of the programme shows that the only black woman on the panel was jeered at and interrupted more times than any other panellist, including by the chair herself.

“The media must stop legitimising mistreatment, bias, and abuse against Ms. Abbott as a black woman in public life. The BBC should be ashamed that their programming is complicit in such behaviour ”

The BBC told i: “We firmly reject claims that any of the Question Time team treated any of the panel unfairly before and during the recording last night.”