Nigel Farage, Anna Soubry and Amber Rudd to head to Northampton for BBC Question Time

The political debate programme, hosted by Fiona Bruce, is to be filmed at Northampton High School in Hardingstone today prior to its broadcast on BBC One at 10.35pm.

Work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd is the most high profile MP on the five-member panel, and she will be joined by former Conservative MP Anna Soubry, who recently defected to the newly formed Change UK (The Independent Group).

Labour’s shadow economic secretary to the treasury, and former lawyer, Jonathan Reynolds is the final MP on the panel.

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who is also an MEP for the South East region, will also be taking part in the debate. The former UKIP leader recently set up the Brexit Party in response to the delays in leaving the European Union.

Businessman and entrepreneur John Mills, the chairman of Labour Leave until 2018, completes the panel.

The show arrives in Northampton in what is a politically uncertain time for the region. District and borough council elections which were due to take place on Thursday last week were postponed by the government ahead of the likely formation of two new unitary councils in the county in April next year.

The two councils would be set up to replace the districts and borough and the cash stricken Northamptonshire County Council following a report by government inspector Max Caller.

The proposals are still waiting to be rubber stamped by Secretary of State James Brokenshire, and local leaders are worried that Brexit may be delaying the process by taking up too much of parliament's time.

It’s unclear how much airtime the local issues in Northamptonshire will be given. But up to 150 local residents have applied to attend the filming.

This will be Question Time’s third visit to Northampton. The last time was in October 2014, with Grant Shapps, Stella Creasy, Julian Huppert, Susie Boniface and Charlie Mullins on the panel.