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Jeremy Corbyn’s front bench has cried foul as BBC Question Time prepared its fifth show in a row without a shadow minister taking part.

Veteran former minister Alan Johnson will be Thursday night’s Labour voice on the flagship current affairs show - completing a run of party figures from outside the party leadership.

But the choice of so many “same old faces” - including four who took part in the botched summer plot to oust Mr Corbyn - has left loyalists grumbling that the BBC would rather show anti-Corbyn rebels to shadow cabinet members.

The last shadow spokesman on the weekly BBC1 debate chaired by broadcaster David Dimbleby was shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer on October 27.

He was followed on November 3 by Lisa Nandy who led a dozen resignations from shadow cabinet in one day in June, protesting “at lack of confidence in the leadership”. The former shadow energy secretary later signalled she would not serve again under Mr Corbyn.

Then on November 10, the guest was former leadership rival Yvette Cooper, who said in June that Mr Corbyn was “losing us support across the country”.

After her came Blairite ex-minister Chris Bryant, who also quit shadow cabinet in June, saying Mr Corbyn could not unite the party.

He was supposed to be followed by shadow chancellor John McDonnell who cried off sick with an hour’s notice, and tried to send left-wing shadow cabinet member Andrew Gwynne to take his place. However, Question Time asked former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie - who backed a no confidence vote in Mr Corbyn in June - to step into Mr McDonnell’s shoes.

This week’s guest Mr Johnson earlier this year branded Mr Corbyn “useless”, “incompetent” and “incapable”. He said Labour was “dead and finished” without a change at the top.

Shadow international trade minister Barry Gardiner said the BBC should pick some “new faces” to sit in the spotlight.

“I’m always happy that colleagues from all wings of the Party should have their say in the media, but this week will make it five weeks in a row that the Official Opposition has not been represented by an official spokesperson from the Shadow Cabinet,” said the Brent North MP.

He said younger shadow cabinet ministers needed exposure to show if they were competent. “Many people are asking why programmes like Question Time continue to bring out the same old faces from the Labour Party who did not support Jeremy instead of the new faces who do,” he added.

A BBC spokesperson said: “Question Time selects its own panellists and this has always included a mixture of front bench and back bench politicians from all parties.

“John McDonnell was booked to appear on the panel last week so any suggestion that the shadow cabinet are excluded is entirely unfounded.”

Insiders said that over 11 programmes since September, there had been five Conservative backbenchers and six Labour backbenchers. They said other Shadow Cabinet members were invited to replace Mr McDonnell but were unavailable, and Mr Leslie was picked because he was a former shadow chancellor and it was the day after the Autumn Statement.