Who's on Question Time tonight? What you need to know about the September 26 BBC politics panel - and location

The BBC’s flagship politics show returns this evening.

Fona Bruce will once again return to the Question Time chair this evening, leading a panel of four experts through the hottest talking points in politics.

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It’s only the second show since Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a landslide victory in the July General Election - and the first since his first speech as Prime Minister to Labour’s party conference.

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This week the programme comes from Milton Keynes, a city in the English county of Buckinghamshire around 50 miles north-west of London.

The majority of the city was built in the 1960s as part of the then-government’s project to build a series of ‘new towns’ to ease pressure on London housing. It has a population of around 250,000 and has traditionally been a Conservative area, but this year voted Labour in the General Election and in May returned a Labour-controlled council for the first time in 24 years.

Topics likely to be on the agenda include the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, the means testing of the Winter Fuel Allowance, and the Labour Party conference.

Here are the four people who will be appearing on the panel - you can watch the programme on the BBC iPlayer from 8pm or on BBC One at 10.40pm.

Nick Thomas-Symonds

Labour politician Nick Thomas-Symonds has been the MP for Torfaen since 2015 and since July 2024 has been Paymaster General, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations. Before entering government he had served as Shadow Home Secretary.

Prior to politics he was a barrister specialising in chancery and commercial law, as well as being an academic who lectured at Oxford Unversity - where he graduated with a first class degree in 2001.

Nadhim Zahawi

Conservative politician Nadhim Zahawi served as MP for Stratford-on-Avon from from 2010 to 2024, when he stood down prior to the General Election. In Government he held a number of cabinet positions under Prime Ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak, including Chairman of the Conservative Party, Minister without Portfolio, Secretary of State for Education and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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Born in Baghdad, his family fled from Saddam Hussein-ruled Iran when he was 11. He trained as a chemical engineer, becoming chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petroleum before entering politics. He was also co-founder of market research firmYouGov, where he was chief executive until being elected.

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Carla Denyer

Green Party politician Carla Denyer has been MP for Bristol Central since the last General Election and is currently the co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales. She had previously served as the party’s housing and communities spokesperson.

Prior to being elected to parliament she had been a city councillor in Bristol from 2015 and was heavily involved in the council’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2018 - the first in Europe. Outside politics Denyer studied mechanical engineering at Durham University and worked in the wind energy sector for Bristol-based renewable energy consultancy GL Garrad Hassan.

Zia Yusuf

Chair of the right-wing Reform UK political party, Zia Yusuf succeeded Richard Tice to the position in July 2024, having first becoming interested in the party after meeting Nigel Farage at a cocktail party and becoming his largest donor. He has also been a member of the Conservative Party.

Born in the Scottish town of Bellshill, Yuduf is a multi-millionaire who studied at the London School of Economics, before working for Goldman Sachs where he became an executive director. The majority of his fortune was made when he sold Velocity Black, the luxury concierge company he co-founded, for £233 million, netting himself a profit of around £31 million.

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