Top 10 Times Tories Got Destroyed on Question Time
#10: Liz Truss
You would be forgiven for forgetting Truss was ever Prime Minister, as she only held the position for 49 days in 2022. During this time, she didn’t once appear on “Question Time”. So, how come she’s on our list then? Well, that’s because she would fake the deaths of minor family members to avoid going on. All the other entries in our list embarrassed themselves while appearing on the series, but Truss made a fool of herself by not appearing. Truss claims she is not a skilled public speaker, which might be the only opinion of hers that no one will disagree with.
#9: Amber Rudd
The Conservative Party won the election in 2015, putting minister Amber Rudd in a position of power. They made a lot of promises to get re-elected, and in usual politician fashion, didn’t follow up on all of them. One woman gave her vote to the Tory party due to their promises about tax credits. They pledged not to cut them, but did the opposite. This led to the outraged voter appearing on “Question Time”, then grilling Rudd about the party’s lies. Labour claimed the policy led to millions losing about £1,000 a year, so it’s easy to see why she felt so passionate about the issue.
#8: Will Quince
In September 2022, Quince became Liz Truss’ Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care. He remained in the position until Rishi Sunak’s cabinet shuffle and has since left politics. Quince was notable for appearing on “Question Time”, getting decimated by Bruce and then the audience. The host showed him a graph revealing how the Tory party is cutting funding for the NHS. Quince decided to disagree, even with the facts right in his face. Later on, the audience started interrogating him about how Quince and the party are slowly destroying the NHS. As expected, he doesn’t properly answer the question, and the audience calls him out on it.
#7: Eric Pickles
The 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal was a massive deal, which exposed a lot of politicians for wasting taxpayer money on unnecessary things. One person exposed was Baron Pickles, who was criticised for having a second home, as his first was 37 miles from Westminster. Pickles tried explaining himself on “Question Time”, but was met with nothing but boos. The man has virtually no self-awareness, complaining about having to start work at the early hours of 9.30. The horror. Believe it or not, Pickles was raised in West Yorkshire by a family who were big Labour fans.
#6: Peter Hitchens
Our next Tory has some fairly contentious views, such as supporting capital punishment. One topic he’s particularly passionate about is sex education in schools. Hitchens claims that introducing this into schools will lead to more teen pregnancies and STIs. This is a topic he has frequently written articles about, but his stance got nothing but boos on “Question Time”. Since his appearance, UNESCO has reviewed 87 independent studies on the issue. You probably won’t be shocked to hear that their findings contradict Hitchens’ claims. That still doesn’t stop him from continuously calling for an end to sex education.
#5: Nadhim Zahawi
Piers Morgan has made a career out of debating people, leading to semi-frequent appearances on “Question Time.” One of the most famous instances was when he shared a panel with Nadhim Zahawi. Morgan managed to get Zahawi so worked up, he even apologised for the scandalous mini-budget. Well, instead of fully accepting responsibility, he then blamed Putin for the country’s issues. This got quite a few chuckles out of the audience, but Zahawi doubled down and got increasingly heated. Bruce then had to step in to cool things over, but he was pretty reluctant to settle down.
#4: Douglas Carswell
Here’s another example of Morgan ripping into a politician. This time, a former Conservative, who, like many Tories, left to join UKIP and later started supporting Reform. After joining UKIP, he was criticised on “Question Time” in 2015 for his associations with Farage. Carswell’s father is a major researcher into HIV, and Farage claimed he wanted to ban all HIV-positive individuals from entering the country. Carswell dodged answering the panel’s questions, until eventually telling them to just ask Farage themself. Despite not being an MP since 2017, Carswell still manages to get himself into semi-regular scandals.
#3: Rishi Sunak
No one voted Sunak into power; he simply took control after Truss’s shambolically short reign. He was far from being a popular prime minister, which meant that when he appeared on “Question Time”, he was ripped to shreds. The first question held no punches, and Sunak’s response was embarrassing. Things didn’t get better from there, and you can tell he was internally screaming the whole show. It's appearances like this that led to the Conservatives losing hundreds of seats in the 2024 election.
#2: Iain Duncan Smith
This politician used to lead the Conservatives in the early 2000s. In 2012, he was invited onto “Question Time”, where he made a bunch of ludicrous claims. For instance, he said 2% of the population is two and a half million people, about 1 million more than the actual figure. At the time, he was the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, so you’d expect him to get his statistics correct. Owen Jones started calling him out for his questionable beliefs, which rubbed him the wrong way. Smith ended up quite angry, and David Dimbleby had to settle things down.
#1: Priti Patel
You might know Ian Hislop from “Have I Got News for You” and the magazine, “Private Eye”. He’s been invited onto “Question Time” more than once. The most famous example arguably being when he clashed with Priti Patel over the issue of capital punishment. She controversially supports the death penalty, claiming that a few innocent deaths are worth having it as a deterrent. Hislop did not hold back in his response, schooling the Conservative on how immoral such sentiments are. Afterwards, she claimed the clip was taken out of context, and that she didn’t support capital punishment. Well, anyone who has seen the full episode will disagree.
Were there any especially scathing moments we failed to mention? Let us know in the comments below!