Question Time election special: BBC accused of letting Tories 'rig' audience for leaders' head to head

The BBC have been accused of allowing the Conservative party to "rig the audience" for last night's Question Time election special.

It has been revealed that one audience member - asked Ed Miliband an aggressive question during the programme - is a member of the Conservative Party and a campaigner.

Tory activist Elena Prokopiou even made a telling slip - referring to the Conservative party as "we" during her question.

She asked: "If you can't accept that you overspent in the last government, why on Earth should we trust you not to do it again."

She said: "We cut...they cut the deficit by half. Why should we trust you not to do the same thing?"

Miss Prokopiou was referred to as one of "our own" by Pudsey Conservative Party on Twitter during the programme - in a tweet that was hastily deleted, but has since been published by the LabourList blog.

They later described her as "one of our members" and previously published pictures of her campaigning with Pudsey Conservative candidate Stuart Andrew

A Labour source said: "There's a great deal of anger about how the BBC allowed such a thing to happen, particularly in a campaign where David Cameron has refused to debate with Ed Miliband.

"It's clear that the BBC have allowed the Tories to rig the audience. The BBC must be held to account for that."

A BBC spokesperson said: "The Question Time audience subjected all three leaders to some robust questions.

"Its members were asked which party they were planning to vote for and 25% supported each of the three party leaders who appeared, with another 10% who were undecided. We are satisfied that the audience composition was fair."

A Conservative party spokesperson said: "The BBC selected the audience and Ed Miliband got a rough ride. For Labour to say it was rigged is pretty desperate.

Asked if party members had been encouraged to apply to be in the audience, the Conservative spokesperson said: "Not as far as I'm aware."

Prokopiou has now made her Twitter account private, but her bio reads: "Cats, Conservatives & Chelsea FC."