Viral Question Time audience member turns out to be a Labour council candidate

Here we go again. The stand out moment of the latest Question Time saw a young woman accuse a Tory minister of purposefully underfunding the NHS in order to  make the argument for privatisation. The exchange left Margot James, a DCMS minister, insisting that she was ‘not a liar’ and calling out the accusations as false.

Since then, the clip of the young woman taking James to task has been widely shared online. Only all is not what it seems. It turns out that the audience member is not your average viewer. In fact, Rebecca Shirazi is a local Labour party candidate. Corbynista Laura Pidcock has been tweeting her praises:

Hats off to #bbcqt audience member @beccahampstead, challenging Govt on their NHS record last night, saying: "I wonder if the Conservative government that we have is ideologically making the NHS…under-funding it, so then they can make the argument for privatisation." Spot on.