Question Time May 23: Discover who is on the BBC's politics show this week - including Tim Montgomerie

Tonight's lineup on Question Time

One subject looks certain to dominate proceedings on the show tonight, as Britain prepares to go to the polls.

Fona Bruce will once again return to the Question Time chair and lead the panel through the hottest talking points with politicians from the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parties on.

Expect the news that PM Rishi Sunak has called a General Election to be discussed in depth as the debate comes from the English city of Coventry.

Here’s who the four guests are.

Sir Mark Spencer

Representing the Conservatives on the show is Sir Mark Steven Spencer, the MP for Sherwood since 2010. who currently serves as Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries - a role he has had since 2022.

He hasd previously served as the Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from February to September 2022 and was Chief Whip for the Conservatives from 2019-2022.

Before entering politics worked in his family’s farm business, having trained at Shuttleworth Agricultural College. The former dairy farm diversified to grow potatoes and vegetables, as well as supplying free-range eggs, beef and lamb, with a 50-strong workforce.

He was chairman of the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs from 1999 to 2000, was a trustee of The Royal Agricultural Society of England, the honorary show director of the Royal Show, and is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Bridget Phillipson

Labour’s MP for Houghton and Sunderland South since 2010, Bridget Maeve Phillipson is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Education, having previously served as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2020 to 2021.

She has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University, where she was elected Co-Chair of the Oxford University Labour Club in 2003.

After graduating she worked in local government for two years, before working as a manager from 2007-2010 at Sunderland charity Wearside Women in Need - whioch was founded by her mother Clare Phillipson

She was selected as the Labour candidate for Houghton and Sunderland South in 2009, winning the seat in the General Election the following year and becoming Parliamentary Private Secretary to Shadow Defence Secretary Jim Murphy.

Daisy Cooper

Appearing from the Liberal Democrats is Daisy Cooper, who has been the MP for St Albans since 2019 and has served as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2020, and as her party’s spokesperson for Health, Wellbeing and Social Care since 2021.

Previous roles include Cooper was previously the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education from September 2020 to October 2021, and the spokesperson for Justice and Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from January 2020 to September 2020.

Before entering politics Cooper studied law at Leeds University and Nottingham University, before working in Commonwealth affairs, for Voluntary Service Overseas, the Hacked Off campaign for victims of press abuse, and for the cross-party group More United. She also runs a local independent campaign group for rail users.

In 2019 she ran Jo Swinson's successful Liberal Democrats leadership campaign.

Tim Montgomerie

Tim Montgomerie is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist who co-founded the Centre for Social Justice and created of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005.

Montgomerie was formerly a Times journalist, where he worked as the newspaper's comment editor, and regigned his membership of the Conservative Party in 2014 due to the party’s then support of EU membership. He returned to the party to briefly work as a special adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He studied Economics and Geography at Exeter University, where he ran the Conservative Association and set up the Conservative Christian Fellowship.

After graduating he worked at the Bank of England as a statistician, before moving to the Conservative Party Central Office where he carried out various roles, including being a speech-writer for successive Conservative Party leaders William Hague, and Iain Duncan Smith.