AN audience member on Question Time was applauded as he said neither Labour nor the Tories are "fit for office".
Labour MP for Bristol North West and chief secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones appeared on the programme following the announcement of the Labour Government’s Budget on Wednesday.
Alongside him was Tory MP for Arundel and South Downs and shadow science secretary Andrew Griffith.
This geezer just won @bbcquestiontime award! “Not fit for office” “We end up with economically illiterate people in the government” “This is our money”@RachelReevesMP #budget2024 @wesstreeting #QuestionTime #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/9Xtf8VrpaY
— The Sunday Roast (@RoastPR) November 1, 2024
During a discussion on funding for the NHS, Fiona Bruce called on one audience member who said he found it “really depressing watching you two thrash it out”.
The two MPs had already clashed on the programme as Jones hit out at Griffith for being economic secretary to the Treasury when Liz Truss was prime minister.
The audience member continued: “My entire life – boom and bust. Whenever there’s a change from Tory to Labour, Labour will come in, Tory will come in, like Cameron did in 2010 and the Labour lot left a note saying, ‘haha, there’s no money left’.
“Then the Tories smash the economy and Labour come in and say, ‘we’ve got to fill this £40 billion, £9bn, £22bn, changes by the day – who knows? who knows how big this black hole is?
“You’ve got the arrogance of the Tory chap there saying, ‘we were doing a great job on inflation’ and all the rest of it – you trashed the economy and it was starting to just about recover.
“Don’t take any credit, that’s disingenuous.”
The audience member was then applauded as he said he did not understand how “economically illiterate” people ended up in government.
He told the MPs they were “not fit for our office” and he was “sick of being asked to pay more and more to get less and less”.
Neither Jones nor Griffiths responded directly to the question but instead author and journalist Craig Oliver said there must be “cross-party consensus” to fix the NHS.
The comments come after Rachel Reeves admitted on Thursday that tax rises in the Budget are likely to hit workers in the pocket with lower pay rises.
Tom Hunter comments
Also appearing on the programme was Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter, who recently paid for the body of Alex Salmond to be repatriated to Scotland.
Asked for his verdict on the Budget, he said there was “no economy in the world that’s ever taxed its way to economic growth”.
Reeves set out a Budget which would increase taxes by £40bn as she promised to “fix the foundations” of the economy.
"There is no economy in the world that has taxed it's way to economic growth" Entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter agrees with a #bbcqt audience member that there is “nothing to encourage” entrepreneurs in the Budget, and worries about UK businesses pic.twitter.com/O5QuD8QuJB
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 31, 2024
Hunter said: “My phone was ringing off the hook last night. We help businesses start and grow.
“Just one example, and I would love to take you Darren so you could listen. I have a friend who has a business, 30 retail units in the UK turning over about £40 million.
“But the NI lowering of the threshold and increasing the rate is going to cost him half a million and the new living wage is going to cost about £800,000.”
Reeves also announced an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions, with employers set to pay an additional 1.2% from April 2025.
Hunter continued to say his friend may have to close some of his retail units and would be forced to pay off 90 people.
“Let’s just assume half of them find a job somewhere else. That’s 45 people who are not paying their tax, not paying their NI and even worse are now asking for benefits,” Hunter said.
“So, that’s not growth so I’m extremely worried about this. We have plenty of entrepreneurs you could speak to and we really want you to succeed but I’m really worried.”
Hunter did say however that he had “a lot of sympathy” with the fact Labour had inherited a difficult financial situation from the previous Conservative government.
