Question Time 5th February 2026
The Panel:
Emma Reynolds (Labour)
Julia Lopez (Conservative)
Munira Wilson (Lib Dem)
Zia Yusuf (Reform UK)
Oli Dugmore (Journalist and Broadcaster)
Venue: Dorking
‘Wandering around the battlefield looking for someone to surrender to’. Not my line, but that of Reginald Maudling, Ted Heath’s Home Secretary in the early 1970’s, musing about that government’s difficulties. It comes to mind, given Kier Starmer’s current affres de la guerre. Thursday morning’s headlines at the heavier end of Fleet Street spoke of the ‘Humiliating Death Throes of Starmer’s Sordid Regime’ (Telegraph), the prime minister being up against it (The Times), and ‘Rivals Set to Oust PM’ (Daily Mail). Even the Labour-supporting Guardian spoke of Starmer’s ‘numbered days’.
For at PMQs on Wednesday, rather than having to sit through an excoriating premiership-ending Geoffrey Howe speech, Starmer managed to crucify himself. Snatching Mrs Badenoch’s nails from across the dispatch box, Keith proceeded to hammer them into his own wrists. “Did you know Peter Mandelson was still close friends with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction for child prostitution?” Asked the Leader of The Opposition. ‘Yes’, replied the hapless Keith.
Into the melle steps Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wycombe. A nonentity making only her second Question Time appearance, Emma’s battlefield promotion to the BBC’s political flagship is because no one else in her party will defend its useless leader. It goes without saying that Mrs Reynolds has never been occupied beyond politics and ‘advisory’. The step-daughter of a Shropshire public school master, Comrade Reynolds studied PPE at Wadham College, Oxford.
Not her real name, after graduating, Emma Elizabeth Stevens entered policy research at Small Business Europe. There followed positions as a political advisor at the Conference of European Centre Left Parties, and as a special advisor at the FCO and Chief Whip’s Office, before becoming a senior consultant (at Cogitamus Limited) the year before being elected to parliament. Cogitamus being ’a highly experienced public affairs and communications business focused on achieving your objectives through effective and ethical campaigning.’
First elected to parliament in 2010 (Wolverhampton North East), the 48-year-old lost the seat in 2019 before being returned to the House of Commons at the July 2024 general election. While away from Westminster, she, erm, remained at Westminster as Managing Director of Public Affairs, Policy & Research at TheCityUK, a financial sector lobbying firm.
The important point being, no matter what happens regarding Mandelson and Starmer, the real and continuing scandal is that we are badly ruled by an immovable and completely out-of-touch London elite.
Zia Yusuf, not his real name, Muhammad Ziauddin Yusuf, is a businessman and Reform UK political figure. Born into a Sri Lankan family and educated at the private Hampton School, he later studied International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Yusuf worked in finance at Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs before making his fortune by co-founding and selling the luxury lifestyle app Velocity Black. Originally a Conservative Party member, he became a major donor to Reform UK, later serving as party chairman and now holding the position of Head of Policy.
Munira Sherali Wilson (née Hassam) is a Liberal Democrat politician and the MP for Twickenham since 2019, succeeding Vince Cable. A grammar school girl and Cambridge modern languages graduate, she trained briefly as a tax consultant before a decade in public affairs and lobbying, including work for Save the Children, the NHS and big pharma.
Julia Louise Lopez (née Dockerill) is a Conservative politician, born in Harlow, Essex in 1984 and educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge. First elected MP for Hornchurch & Upminster in 2017, she served in a range of Government roles, including Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office and Minister of State for Media, Data & Digital Infrastructure.
Oli Dugmore is a political journalist and editor best known for his work in digital political media. After studdying Politics at the University of Cardiff, he began his career at The Sunday Times, LBC and The Tab before joining JOE Media in 2018. At JOE, he led PoliticsJOE, producing news, interviews and viral political content aimed at younger audiences. More recently, he became Executive Editor (Digital) of the left wing New Statesman.
Not his real name, Comrade Daniel Oliver Henry Hare Dugmore is an old boy of Warwick School, fees £53,640 per annum. However, the leftie New Statesman executive editor isn’t listed on the wiki page of Old Warwickians. A Google search links there, but he doesn’t appear on the actual page. Surely the 34-year-old hasn’t had himself removed? Perhaps the Temp might help:
‘Publicly available information about Oli Dugmore’s early schooling (i.e., which primary or secondary school he attended) is not documented in reliable sources. It’s known he keeps his personal life fairly private and most profiles focus on his career rather than his school background.’
Hmm. Try again.
‘There are no credible sources confirming which secondary/primary school Oli Dugmore attended (including whether he went to any specific private or state school). Many online lists and biographies do not have this information, and sites that try to guess his schooling often list it as unknown.’
Hmmm.
Ignoring, as one should, ‘publicly available information’ and so-called ‘credible sources’, Oli not only attended the exclusive public school but wrote about it, albeit ten years ago.
In a The Tab article, rather than a hotbed of leftist inner city working class rebellion, Oli recalls Warwick to be ‘a quaint town with a castle and a private school.’ Forgetting to condemn the elitism, and recommend VAT be added to the fees, he notes, ‘It offers a good education and tradition in equal measure, so it’s popular with the surrounding middle-class parents.’
Proletarian Oli recalls he was ‘routinely chased by a retired army marshal to do my top button up and the like. Rugby pitches slot around the buildings in a game of elitist Tetris, and behind the Combined Cadet Force’s assault course, there is a state school. Gasp.’ Double gasp.
Concerned readers, worried at the prospect of inclusion and equality, will be relieved to read that man-of-the-people Master D.O.H.H. Dugmore continues, ‘The schools don’t have much to do with each other apart from a semi-regular rugby fixture and an even less regular bus stop fight.’ Phew!
As with Starmer, why do we put up with these lying, fake, entitled leftie elitist cretins?
***
Question one: Should Keir Starmer resign?
La Bruce reminded Emma she had drawn the short straw. Emma replied that Keir is dedicated to public service. We are turning the corner. La Bruce interrupted to quote Harriet Harman sticking the knife in: ‘weak, naive, gullible’. Puffins will recall that Harman previously demonstrated her strength and worldliness by advocating on behalf of the Paedophile Information Exchange. Emma had just discovered a lot of the Mandelson stuff ‘this week’. Mandelson lied in the vetting. Keir is sorry. If only he’d known then what the rest of the world knew.
Julia had been in the chamber and recalled the ‘yes’ answer. We don’t buy into the idea that nobody realised Mandelson didn’t come with political risks. It’s blown up in Starmer’s face. La Bruce blamed the Conservatives for not objecting to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington.
Either way, an appalling judgment or deliberate appointment, Starmer is responsible, noted a lady in the audience. A lawyer in the audience described lawyer Starmer as an ‘inspiring figure’, ‘a man of integrity’. Is he a Labour plant? He claimed we need more ordinary people in Parliament, like the Green candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election. No, a Green plant – if you see what I mean. So ordinary is the candidate, he didn’t know their name. She’s called Hannah Stephens, and is far from ordinary. Puffins will find out more about the millionaire cosplay plumber on Saturday evening.
Zia Yusuf disagreed with Emma and inferred that Starmer is sleazy and corrupt, like the outgoing Conservative government. ‘An unholy fire hose of corruption and sleaze.’ It started with Lord Ali. Designer clothes. A donor into the Treasury. Cancelled elections, etc., etc. And now, after Mandelson continued a friendship with a convicted paedophile, Keir Starmer ignored the advice of the security services and made this man an ambassador.
La Bruce interrupted to say that Mandelson wasn’t there to defend himself and that his position was that he is innocent of such things. La Bruce wondered about Nigel Farage’s comments at the time of Mandelson’s appointment. Farage isn’t the Prime Minister and didn’t appoint him, responded Yusuf.
A loon in the audience asked if there were any skeletons in the Reform Party closet – to applause from the carefully selected BBC audience. As if this were a set-up, La Bruce deflected by reading out from notes about the conviction of Nathan Gill.
Oli is a forgiving person; our politics are the poorer for their lack of empathy. He didn’t want people to be defined by the worst thing they’ve done in their lives. They deserve a second chance. But sex with children was a bit much, and he wouldn’t want to work with someone who did that. If he did so, you’d be asking him questions. That’s a fringe position for some people at the top of the Labour Party, he continued. They knew about this.
At which point La Bruce interrupted again. Undeterred, Oli continued that keeping a friendship with a convicted paedophile didn’t put them off. They thought, this is our guy. Not only that, after making him an ambassador, we shall also bring him back to London from time to time to advise on Cabinet reshuffles and the selection of candidates.
Who are ‘they’? The Labour Party is riven by factionalism – warring parties within a party. The present controlling clique are sometimes laughably labelled ‘Labour Together’. Its axis revolves around Starmer, his Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, and Mandelson. Fellow travellers include Wes Streeting, whose partner, Joseph Dancey, a public affairs consultant and one-time researcher for Mandelson, finished second in Stockton West at the general election. McSweeney’s wife is Imogen Walker, the Labour MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley since the election. ‘And help select candidates…’ Do you see how it works?
The reason La Bruce dissembles, distracts and blames the opposition parties for not challenging Mandelson’s appointment is that the BBC is aware that if Starmer goes, he may be replaced by another member of the influential and malevolent Labour Together faction – to the BBC’s detriment. That is more important to them, and other parts of the London elite, than challenging serious wrong doing.
© Always Worth Saying 2026
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