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BBC Question Time erupted into chaos last night after Zia Yusuf branded Alastair Campbell a “war criminal” mid-debate.

BBC Question Time was hosted in Warwick this week. On the panel, from the government, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds; the Conservative Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge; the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper, Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf and the journalist and political strategist Alastair Campbell.

During the show, Zia brought up the time Alastair Campbell released a highly controversial government briefing paper – commonly referred to as “dossiers” – to the British public regarding Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

Zia said: “You deceived the British people because you and your old boss Tony Blair wanted to go to war with Iraq, and as a direct result of your deception, almost 180 British troops are dead; 600,000 Iraqi civilians are dead… There are people watching this who disagree with you. When you described yourself as a national treasure recently, they would more aptly describe you as a war criminal, and if there were any justice in this country, frankly, you and your old boss Tony would be on trial.”

To which Alastair responded: “Very good, ok,” before a brief pause. He continued: “First of all, Mr Yusuf, six inquiries into it, not one of them found that we lied… not one.”

In the minute that followed, both Alastair and Zia were heard speaking over each other until Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats Daisy Cooper stepped in to add her point.

After the show the debate spilled over to X where Zia captioned a clip: “Alastair Campbell did not appear to enjoy being called a war criminal to his face: The truth hurts.”

Alastair responded to Zia’s comments. Sharing Zia’s post, he wrote: “I have heard it from far better people than you and they were wrong too. What I enjoyed was seeing you running away from an argument about Brexit because you would rather talk about anything else. And I loved the smile being wiped from your face when the young woman tore apart your net zero BS. You’ve got nice suits and nice shoes, but you’ve got more chance captaining the Sri Lankan cricket team than you have of becoming Home Secretary.”

The public debate between the pair on X divided opinions. One X user wrote: “Love it, Zia. Fearless” while Reform UK Councillor Matt Johnson said: “We’re going to make him Home Secretary and you will weep.”

Earlier in the show Zia and Alastair clashed over Brexit. Alastair Campbell said: “I will say to Zia and to his friend Nigel that he talked about so lovingly there, Brexit has taken 6-8% out of our economy, if we had not left the chancellor today would have had £90 billion more to spend. He could have doubled the defense budget.”

Fiona interjected: “That is a projection Alastair, no-one can be sure about that.”

Alastair continued: “They [Reform] can sit there. The people who gave us Brexit and they now want to give you another set of false promises. Do not fall for them because they are a bunch of conmen, they’re being found out and it’s one reason why Nigel Farage will never be Prime Minister of this country.”

While Alastair slammed Reform UK wagging his finger as Zia sat across the panel, Zia sat with a smug expression on his face.

BBC Question Time returns next week live from Liverpool.