Question Time audience member blasts Tories for 'stealing our tax' and has microphone removed
'Can you take the microphone away while Daniel answers, because otherwise we won’t be able to hear what he says'
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Your support makes all the difference.An audience member lambasted David Cameron and his government on Question Time, saying “he has stripped us of everything”.
The woman, who appeared on Thursday night's programme, talked for so long that the roaming microphone was removed from her, following a number of heated interruptions.
Public anger at the Prime Minister’s involvement in the Panama Papers scandal came to a head at the debate in Doncaster as the audience member launched an extended attack on Tory hypocrisy.
“I see a lot of women, my friends, like myself who is going to lose my job in two week’s time because the Tories have been stealing our tax, and domestic violence services are closing,” she said, referring to a local branch of Women’s Aid which is closing after 40 years.
Tax evasion is the “elephant in the room” which makes the rich richer while communities suffer, she said.
The point was aimed at Conservative MEP and Brexit campaigner Daniel Hannan.
“I don’t know how you dare talk about Europe being corrupt when we have Cameron who said he would look after the vulnerable in 2010,” she also argued.
Mr Hannan responded by arguing that austerity policies could have been “wiped out” if we were not in the EU.
“According to Institute for Fiscal Studies, between 2010 and 2015, all the austerity cuts put together saved £36 billion pounds,” he said.
This caused the angry audience member to shout across him “boring” and “it’s a lie,” resulting in her microphone being taken away so that Mr Hannan could finish.
“Over the lifetime of that same parliament, our gross contribution to the EU budget was £85 billion,” said Mr Hannan.
The subject of the debate was inheritance tax.
David Cameron revealed that he had received £200,000 from his mother in 2011 following his father’s death when he published his tax statement on Saturday.
It will remain untaxed provided his mother does not pass away before 2018.
Women's groups and disability charities have also condemned Conservative cuts.
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