BBC Question Time fans were surprised to see a familiar face on last night’s episode. Fiona Bruce was at the helm of the BBC show as she was joined by the likes of Environment Secretary Steve Reed MP, Conservative Peer Lord Finkelstein, Daisy Cooper MP and journalist Andrew Marr.
The presenter soon went to the audience for questions, while discussing Keir Starmer‘s success in the General Election leading to him being appointed as the UK’s new Prime Minister on July 4. She chose a “woman in a green top” to have her chance to ask a question, leaving fans at home distracted.
The familiar-looking woman asked Labour’s cabinet secretary, Steve Reed MP, about Putin’s Russia as she said: “In your opening words you mentioned Vladimir Putin and so I wanted to just ask if the Labour party was privy to any information that the United Kingdom may not be.
“I’m just curious as to why you would mention that and should we be privy to this information.” Mr Reed replied: “The reason was because it was Vladimir Putin‘s illegal invasion of Ukraine that caused such a problem with the supply of fossil fuels to the UK because of the sanctions that were put on Russia following that.
“If we control our own energy in this country – wind wave, solar and nuclear – we don’t have to import fossil fuels from elsewhere, we control our own energy then the actions of foreign dictators like Putin don’t affect us.
“It keeps us safer and keeps us more secure but it cuts energy bills as well because clean energy is cheaper than fossil energy.”
The audience member turned out to be former X Factor star and singer Katie Waissel, as fans pointed out on social media. Posting to X (formerly Twitter) one user asked: “X Factor’s Katie Waissel just asked a question on #BBCQT???”
Another said that the star’s appearance enhanced the show as they wrote: “Ben Habib’s car crash performance on #BBCQT, might have only been upstaged by a surprise cameo from X Factor’s Katie Waissel.”
A third said: “Useless nugget of information, but this #bbcqt questioner is Katie Waissel from X Factor 2010. She was huge at the time.”
Someone else penned: “@katiewaissel24 Hey Katie, I see you [eyeball emoji]. #bbcqt.” While another added: “Well, I didn’t have Katie Waissel on my election 2024 bingo card #bbcqt.”
Katie came into the public eye when she was the 10th contestant eliminated in the seventh series of The X Factor. She later went on to appear in Celebrity Big Brother but was eliminated in eighth place.