{"id":448228,"date":"2026-02-27T09:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448228\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:15:09","slug":"bbc-question-time-crowd-erupts-into-laughter-as-host-fiona-stops-andrew-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448228\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Question Time crowd erupts into laughter as host Fiona stops Andrew debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During last night&#8217;s episode of Question Time on BBC One a debate on the monarchy fit for purpose and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor caused the crowd to erupt into laughter<\/p>\n<p>01:21, 27 Feb 2026Updated 02:40, 27 Feb 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Journalist Esther Krakue didn't hold back when she spoke about Andrew\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/2_Britain-Epstein-Andrew-Succession-Explainer-26054567891389.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Journalist Esther Krakue didn't hold back when she spoke about Andrew\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Journalist Esther Krakue didn&#8217;t hold back when she spoke about Andrew(Image: AP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A live TV debate had to be interupted as the audience erupted into laughter when discussing the latest accusations surrounding <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/andrew-mountbatten-windsor\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a> and his time as trade envoy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Fiona Bruce hosted this evening&#8217;s<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/question-time\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\"> Question Time<\/a> from Birmingham, with politicians, commentators and members of the public. On the panel, from the government, the culture secretary Lisa Nandy; the Conservatives\u2019 shadow home office minister, Alicia Kearns; Jess Brown-Fuller MP from the<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/liberal-democrats\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\"> Liberal Democrats<\/a>; the chef and television presenter Tom Kerridge and the journalist Esther Krakue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">During the episode a debate on the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/royals\/\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">royal family<\/a> and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor caused the crowd to erupt into laughter. Audience member, Peter More, asked: \u201cGiven the latest accusations surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, is the monarchy fit for purpose in the 21st century?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_qt7.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">READ MORE: <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/royals\/andrew-would-arrive-late-only-36764749\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Andrew &#8216;would arrive late and only talk to young women&#8217; when he was trade envoy<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">READ MORE: <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/news\/politics\/bbc-question-time-sees-heartbroken-36788587\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">BBC Question Time sees heartbroken pub owner question his son&#8217;s future after catastrophic tax rise<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Host Fiona Bruce explained that MPs are not generally freely able to scrutinise the royals in parliament, she said: \u201cvery little is known about how much money the royals actually have, estimates vary from \u00a3650 million to over \u00a31 billion, no-one really knows and they are also exempt from all kinds of laws and taxes as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Jess Brown-Fuller MP from the<a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/liberal-democrats\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\"> Liberal Democrats<\/a> said: \u201cBefore being elected I had no idea that politicians were unable to scrutinise members of the royal family in parliament.\u201d She went on to say: \u201cI think it is important for all victims in this country to know that nobody is above the law, regardless of birth right, position, friends, bank balance, nobody should be above scrutiny and nobody should be above the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Journalist Esther Krakue didn&#8217;t hold back when she spoke about Andrew, saying: &#8220;I appreciate the anger around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; he is clearly an entitled, arrogant man with no judgement.&#8221; Interrupting Esther, host Fiona jumped in to say: &#8220;I have to say at this point he denies any wrongdoing, you may all laugh there but this is my duty and I have to say that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Jess Brown-Fuller MP from the Liberal Democrats\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_qt8.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Jess Brown-Fuller MP from the Liberal Democrats\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Jess Brown-Fuller MP from the Liberal Democrats<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Esther continued: &#8220;This is not fair on the working royals who are looking to just do a good job for the country, and the question is how do we stop this from happening?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Alicia Kearns chimed in saying: &#8220;I think the monarchy is incredibly important in this country, I think we&#8217;re incredibly proud of our monarchy in this country.&#8221; But she emphasised the bigger issue as: &#8220;Women said that they were being treated badly, women said they were being abused, we were not seen they were not heard and actually it&#8217;s not just Mountbatten and I think there&#8217;s a real risk we focus on him and allow other people to slip away into the dark.&#8221; She concluded: &#8220;But I&#8217;m not done until we get through the list of all those men.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Andrew has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to his friendship with dead paedophile <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/jeffrey-epstein\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Next week on March 5 Question Time returns on <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/bbc\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">BBC<\/a> One live from Kettering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During last night&#8217;s episode of Question Time on BBC One a debate on the monarchy fit for purpose&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[243,61,96,59,3596,229,72908,223,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-bbc","tag-conservative-party","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-politics","tag-question-time","tag-royal-family","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}