She's not just an "active supporter" of Tommy Robinson, having been photographed at demos supporting him, her husband is Roy Peach, who's stood for election as an MP for the National Front. She herself stood for election as a National Front candidate as Sherri Bothwell twice in 1974.
Nowadays, she's more involved with the group Britain First.
Her factually incorrect ravings from the front row of the audience were bad enough, but the BBC's social media team chose to feature them unchallenged on its Twitter feed, using the very busy #bbqt hashtag. Ex-BBC social media staff have observed that this contravenes the BBC's social media guidelines.
This raises the question of how she came to be in the audience, let alone in a front-row seat and called to supposedly ask a question, rather than invited to rant at length. The trail leads immediately to Alison Fuller Pedley (who we've discussed on DU before), who's the audience producer for BBC Question Time on behalf of Mentorn Media. Fuller Pedley has a track record of sympathy with Britain First and other right-wing groups on social media, and has been know to post online where people of that ilk frequent, inviting them to apply to be in the audience, and - surprise surprise - they often get through whatever vetting takes place and are chosen to "ask questions", or more usually, rant about whatever's on their minds.
So Mason's right to sound caution and alarm about the fact that rather than placating them, Brexit has encouraged the far right, but as with Nigel Farage - who wouldn't have had anything like his current media profile without regular appearances on Question Time over the years out of all proportion to UKIP's support at the time - the BBC is amplifying these voices totally irresponsibly. If recent polls are to be believed, UK citizens are more relaxed nowadays about immigration than they have been at any time over the past decade.
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