Question Time was cut short after audience member had asthma attack... caused by 'pungent aftershave'

The BBC current affairs programme was airing from Colchester Town Hall on Thursday when host David Dimbleby suddenly announced it was finishing early because an audience member had collapsed.

The show was cut 20 minutes short - instead of running to an hour as normal - as an ambulance was called to the High Street venue.

Now the woman who suffered the collapse has revealed she suffered an asthma attack - which she says was brought on by a reaction to the aftershave of the man sat next to her.

Sioux Blair-Jordan said: “My friend did not like sitting in the front row, so the man behind her swapped.

Sioux pictured in front of the Question Time set 

“Unfortunately the aftershave he was wearing affected my asthma - my airways just closed off.

“It depends how it is chemically made as it is the chemicals that set me off.

“I don’t know what he was wearing but it must have had the chemicals that upset me.

“I actually said to him: ‘Oh, I feel faint,’ and then the next thing I knew I was screaming in pain.”

Labour Party campaigner Ms Blair-Jordan - who suffers from a degenerative spinal disease - revealed her back had been damaged as a result or first aiders’ efforts.

She added: “From what I understand from other people, I was not moved in the correct way - I don’t know who did it.

“I am grateful for their efforts to save my life but by not doing it correctly they actually have damaged my spine - I have soft tissue damage and I ended up in A&E all night.”

The 61-year-old does not know the name of the pungent aftershave wearer.

She added: “The man wearing the aftershave was not to know. It was quite pungent.

“I don’t know what aftershave it was. All I know is the chap was quite chatty and quite pleasant. I’d never met him before.

“I am thankful for everybody for what they did, particularly the ambulance people who were amazing.”

Ms Blair-Jordan was sitting in the front row when the drama unfolded.

She added: “Some people thought it was a conspiracy to halt the show because it was more pro-Labour than normal but it was not manufactured, it was absolutely genuine.

“If anyone else had sat next to me who had not got perfume or an aftershave on, it would not have happened.”

The mum-of-two, who lives in Colchester, said she had been looking forward to quizzing the panel about the issue of Universal Credit before her collapse.

She previously hit the headlines when she told the Labour party conference disabled people might as well “walk into the gas chamber” if the Government was to bring in a British Bill of Rights.

The Question Time panel included Business Secretary Greg Clark, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, former Metropolitan Police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, one-time Marks and Spencer boss Lord Stuart Rose and crime writer Dreda Say Mitchell.