This Week's Panel

Question Time, the BBC's premier political debate programme chaired by David Dimbleby, was broadcast from Cheltenham.

David Dimbleby was joined by shadow higher education minister Boris Johnson, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, Liberal Democrat spokesperson Baroness Bonham-Carter, comedian Shappi Khorsandi and Independent MEP Robert Kilroy Silk

BORIS JOHNSON MP

Title: Shadow higher education minister

Career: Boris Johnson resigned as editor of The Spectator magazine to join David Cameron's front bench team. He continues to write for the Telegraph.

Former Tory leader Michael Howard sacked Mr Johnson as shadow arts minister in November 2004.

Re-elected as MP for Henley at the 2005 general election, Mr Johnson originally inherited the seat from Michael Hestletine in 2001.

He is well known for his appearances on the BBC programme Have I Got News For You.

TONY MCNULTY MP

Title: Home Office Minister

Career: Tony McNulty is Minister of State for policing, security and community safety - issues which were at the heart of yesterday's Queen's Speech.

He was formerly the Immmigration Minister.

According to The Times newspaper, he is an amateur guitarist and is due to perform an Oasis hit for the Home Office's internal Children in Need fundraiser this Friday.

BARONESS BONHAM-CARTER

Title: Liberal Democrat spokesperson in the Lords on Broadcasting.

Career: She was the also Paddy Ashdown's director of communications when he was leader of the party.

She has a distinguished record as a TV journalist having worked on Panorama and Newsnight and as editor of a Week in Politics for Channel 4.

Her great grandfather Herbert Asquith was the last prime minister of a liberal government and she is a cousin of the actress Helena Bonham Carter.

SHAPPI KHORSANDI

Title: Comedian

Career: Born in Iran, Shappi's family fled to the UK after her father, a famous political satirist, was threatened with death for criticizing the Ayatollah.

In 1984 Scotland Yard uncovered a plot to assasinate her father and the family went into hiding under police protection.

She is about to embark on a London run of her show "Asylum Speaker" and recently performed with Meera Syal and Jeremy Hardy in a benefit gig for asylum seekers in Islington.

ROBERT KILROY-SILK

Title: Independent MEP

Career: A former Labour MP, Robert Kilroy Silk was a high profile television BBC presenter. He left after writing a controversial article for the Sunday Express entitled "We owe Arabs nothing".

In 2004 he successfully stood for the UK Independence Party in the European Parliament Election in the East Midlands region.

He later announced that he had withdrawn from the UKIP whip branding the party "incompetent" and launched his own party, Veritas.

As of January 2006 he remains a member of Veritas but sits as an Independent MEP. He has called for the Conservative Party to be "killed off".