BBC PAID TV AUDIENCE TO APPEAR AT LEADERS' DEBATE

'Every single person in the audience was paid'

- Fran Winston

THE BBC spent more than £30,000 of licence fee payers' money hiring audience members for the TV election debate between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer.

The 150-strong group, who were told not to heckle, were each paid £150 "disturbance money" and £30 towards their expenses.

A company hired by the corporation also paid up to 20 more people to be reserve audience members.

The BBC said the payments are standard for such events to cover travel costs and time.

The money dished out to audience members in Nottingham on Wednesday is believed to be part of what the BBC paid the thirdparty polling company Savanta to recruit an audience for the debate.

Savanta then outsourced the job to another market research company called Roots. A source who was in the debate, where audience asked questions, explained to the Daily Express how they were approached.

They said they had previously been paid to work on projects for Roots so they were on the company mailing list.

The person said: "I got an email asking if I would be interested and I said yes.

"I think they wanted people who lived in the Midlands basically. They got back to me and asked me lots and lots and lots of questions. I'd had to fill in a questionnaire before they spoke to me."