Fiona Bruce: has Question Time host been ‘hung out to dry’?

Fiona Bruce has been “hung out to dry” by BBC bosses after she was accused of trivialising domestic abuse during a discussion about Boris Johnson’s father, Stanley, on Question Time last week.

That is according to friends of the presenter and long-time women’s rights campaigner, who told The Telegraph that BBC producers had provided her with lines to defend the corporation from potentially defamatory allegations should the topic of domestic violence come up on the show.

The paper reported that Bruce is “devastated” by the online reaction to her comments and has quit her role as an ambassador for the domestic violence charity Refuge. Her allies have called upon the BBC to “better support its talent”.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What was said?

In a debate on Thursday’s Question Time about reports that the former prime minister had put his father, Stanley Johnson, forward for a knighthood, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said the 82-year-old’s alleged history of violence was “on record” and that he was a “wife beater”.

At this point Bruce, the Question Time host, interjected saying: “I’m not disputing what you’re saying, but just so everyone knows what this is referring to, Stanley Johnson’s wife spoke to a journalist, Tom Bower, and she said that Stanley Johnson had broken her nose and that she’d ended up in hospital as a result.

“Stanley Johnson has not commented publicly on that. Friends of his have said it did happen but it was a one-off.”

It was this reference to it being a “one-off” that appears to have created the uproar.

What has the reaction been?

While the presenter of the BBC show has “faced a social media backlash”, said the Independent, she has been backed by a number of high-profile figures.

This includes Alibhai-Brown, whose initial comments sparked the outcry. Writing for i news, she said Bruce, who “has been championing the rights of victimised females for over 25 years… doesn’t deserve this”.

Saying she understood why she had interjected, Alibhai-Brown said Bruce “was legally obliged to put out that clarification” and “did what she had to do”.

Speaking on Tuesday’s edition of Good Morning Britain, presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls described the row as “outrageous”, said HuffPost. Balls said it was a host’s “responsibility” to offer the other side of an argument but “you get these pile-ons on social media where people assume that if we say that, that’s what we believe”. He argued that Bruce was not saying what she believed but simply what the other side in the argument had said.

What are the consequences for Bruce?

In a statement given to the PA news agency, Bruce said that she was “required to legally contextualise” a response about Johnson and the words were not an expression of her own opinions and she would never minimise domestic abuse.

However, following the backlash to her comments, which provoked in her words a “social media storm”, she announced she was stepping back as an ambassador of domestic abuse charity Refuge.

In a statement, the charity said: “Refuge’s position was, and remains, clear: domestic abuse is never a ‘one off’, it is a pattern of behaviour that can manifest in a number of ways, including but not limited to physical abuse. Domestic abuse is never acceptable.

“These words minimised the seriousness of domestic abuse and this has been retraumatising for survivors. Survivors of domestic abuse are, and will always be, Refuge’s priority. Our focus must remain on them.”

The public response compounded a nightmare week for the BBC, which was already dealing with the furore over Gary Lineker’s comments on the government’s illegal migration bill and reports that the corporation had bowed to right-wing pressure not to air a documentary narrated by David Attenborough that allegedly criticised the government’s environment policies.

There is, however, no suggestion that Bruce could be asked to stand down from her role presenting Question Time.