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A Question Time audience member criticised a ‘woeful’ Tory government during a debate about juvenile knife crime, vandalism and substance abuse.
Last night’s episode, which was held in Bristol, saw audience member Claire Stewart-Hall take aim at panel member Andrew Murrison, the Conservative MP for south-west Wiltshire.
Claire went on a passionate rant about the issues she thinks have not been addressed by the government since 2010.
She said: ‘Yeah, I’m staggered to be honest at the gap between the audience and the panel, and the notion that you think you’re succeeding on green energy, or that people support human beings washing up on our shores or being deported to Rwanda. I’m absolutely staggered.
‘The way we talk about serious youth violence is not to talk about crime, it’s to talk about the trauma that they’ve actually experienced in the last two years.’
Claire listed an extensive list of cuts made by the Tories since they have been in power.
She continued: ‘You have cut funding, you’ve cut budgets in schools, we can’t recruit teachers, we can’t recruit teaching assistants.
‘You’ve cut social workers, you have cut local services to the bone and then you’re worried about antisocial behaviour. There are no youth services.’
She then paused as several audience members nodded and clapped in agreement at her remarks.
Claire then said: ‘There is such a massive gap between what you’re saying and people’s experience. Why can’t people buy a house? Look at their wages – they’re a teacher, they have been through university, paid over £30,000, if not more, to go to university.
‘Use rent control. Want to have more houses? Build more houses because you can find the money to build HS2 and drill through forests.
‘This is what we’re talking about – these are ideological choices. You’ve done nothing for green energy in 13 years, nothing! Absolutely nothing! So, I think when we’re talking about young people and supporting them… what has been put in place for young people?
‘That tutoring programme, a tutoring programme. That’s it. It’s woeful, it’s woeful.’
Mr Murrisons responded: ‘The original question was about knife crime.
‘In terms of knife crime and anti-social behaviour serious crime has come down a lot.
‘50% since 2010 except for fraud because what’s happened is the criminals are becoming invisible.
‘It touches on the point about community policing because although we’ve recruited 16,000 policemen, what people say to me is they want visible policing but those policemen are tackling online fraud.
‘But a 50% cut since 2010 is a real achievement.’
On the panel Mr Murrison was joined by Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow attorney general, Helen Morgan, Liberal Democrat MP, Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam and Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator.
Host Fiona Bruce also asked whether any of the members supported the government’s migration bill, to which only one person raised their hand.
Hundreds have protested about the controversial bill which would ban people entering the UK illegally from ever claiming asylum in the UK.
The bill has been criticised as ‘hateful’, ‘inhumane’ and ‘cruel’.
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