THE storm around BBC Question Time has continued on into this week as the corporation remains under fire over multiple appearances of a former Coatbridge and Chryston UKIP candidate in Motherwell.

What happened?

Billy Mitchell recently made his fourth appearance on the show - and claimed he was invited to be part of the audience in North Lanarkshire on Thursday, February 7 because the area strongly supported the SNP.

Why all the fuss?

According to the BBC, the application form requires prospective guests to say whether they have previously been on the show, and when.

Guests must also reveal who they would be most likely to vote for in a General Election, how they voted in the EU referendum, and whether they are a member of a political party.

On Wednesday, the Evening Times’ sister title The National used its front page to demand answers from the BBC asking a series of questions.

What’s the BBC saying?

A spokeswoman for the BBC said that strict rules on data protection meant they were “not able to talk about individual cases.”

She added: “Although there are no hard and fast rules about how many times someone can appear in a Question Time audience, we want to allow as many people as possible the chance to be part of the programme so we would not normally allocate a seat to someone if they had appeared recently.

“There is a detailed application process, with a request for photographic identification and every audience member is spoken to individually, sometimes by phone.

“We continually review our systems and processes in this area.”

What’s the man in question saying about it all?

Mr Mitchell then claimed he was invited by the BBC to fill the audience with more right-wing voices.

Speaking to The Times, he claimed he was invited by the show's producer to appear in the unionist-heavy audience in Motherwell, in part to make up a shortage of conservative speakers.

Have locals kicked up?

Marion Fellows, the SNP MP for Motherwell and Wishaw, then blasted the BBC over the corporation’s misrepresentation of the North Lanarkshire town.

She expressed disappointment with the show and demanded answers, saying the “local flavour” that was meant to be delivered by Question Time had not been delivered.

What’s happening now?

Today (Thursday, February 14), the makers of Question Time have come under even more pressure after it was claimed panel member Fiona Hyslop’s full response to Mr Mitchell was edited out from last week’s Question Time in Motherwell.

It has since been revealed his last audience appearance gave him more than a minute of uninterrupted airtime to direct a rant at an SNP minister.

Ms Hyslop responded to his tirade giving a seven-second answer before the show moved along to another topic.

However, according to reports in The National, the full response was, in fact, significantly longer - but was chopped out in the final edit by the show’s producers.

In the broadcast programme, Mr Mitchell ends his speech with: “You’re losers. You need to get voted out and leave Scotland to prosper.”

Ms Hyslop then replies: “I appreciate your point. A slight exaggeration. We had a white paper, whether you liked it or not, there were 600 pages of it–”

The camera then cuts back to the audience, and host Fiona Bruce introduces a new questioner and the debate moves on.

The Evening Times’ sister title The Herald has contacted the BBC for comment.