Bruce has fallen victim to ignorant attacks from the sanctimonious Left

Naturally, her comments were mischaracterised on Twitter, where Bruce was subjected to an ugly pile-on

Since I started presenting a Sunday morning politics show on television, I have had to grow used to little voices in my ears, reminding me of the need to say this or that while I’m live on air. If it’s not my director counting me down to the news, it’s my senior producer giving me suggested push-back on what my guests are telling me.

Pushing back against guests isn’t just in the interests of balance, which happens to be strictly regulated by Ofcom – it can also be a legal safeguard, especially when the discussion regards someone else’s personal affairs. Which is why the treatment of Fiona Bruce this week has been so offensively idiotic. When faced with strident panellist Yasmin Alibhai-brown describing Stanley Johnson – father of Boris – as “a wife-beater … on record”, the Question Time host did what any decent journalist would do and gave the claim some context.

“I’m not disputing what you’re saying,” she said, adding that while Johnson’s wife had said he had broken her nose and she had ended up in hospital as a result, “Stanley Johnson has not commented on that. Friends of his have said it did happen, it was a one-off.”

Naturally, the comment, which it seems she was legally obliged to make,

was mischaracterised on Twitter, where Bruce was subjected to an ugly pile on by so-called “progressives”. In a victory for wife-beaters, the furore then prompted the 58-year-old to step down as an ambassador for Refuge after 25 years campaigning for the victims of domestic abuse.

Way to go, Women’s Aid, whose chief executive Farah Nazeer was ironically one of those fuelling the deeply unfair charges against a prominent woman. As Julie Bindel, the feminist writer, later pointed out – it is Johnson, not Bruce, who should be the subject of scrutiny.

But it is also staggering that Bruce’s critics failed to understand that had she not given the context, Alibhaibrown’s comment might well have been cut altogether (Question Time is pre-recorded “as live” and therefore it can be edited). Is that what they’d prefer?

Far from defending Stanley Johnson, Fiona Bruce was actually defending freedom of speech at a time when moderate voices are increasingly being drowned out by a vocal minority of obscurantists.