Former Dragon's Den judge Theo Paphitis was left with his head in his hands on Question Time at a Tory minister's failure to answer questions on immigration.
Laura Trott tried to heap blame on Labour when asked about the Government's broken promises on keeping migration numbers down.
Mr Paphitis, an entrepreneur who starred on the popular BBC show, put his head in his hands in frustration in response.
Figures revealed yesterday that net migration - the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and those leaving - spiralled to a record 606,000 in the year to December 2022.
This is up from 488,000 in 2021 but lower than sky-high estimates of between 700,000 and 1 million that had been floated.
The Tories pledged to slash net migrations to below 100,000 in their 2010, 2015 and 2017 election manifestos.
The party ditched the vow in 2019 but committed to making sure "overall numbers come down".
Ms Trott insisted the Tories have "got a plan to bring immigration down" and pointed to the increase in numbers of people from Ukraine and Hong Kong arriving in the UK under Government schemes.
She added: “The last thing I’ll say is you can’t trust Labour on this one.
"They went into the last election saying they wanted freedom of movement. As recently as 2020, Keir Starmer said he wanted to defend free movement.”
Mr Starmer has since ruled out bringing back freedom of movement and insisted it's a "red line" his party wouldn't cross if it was in Government.
To applause from the audience, Mr Paphitis said: "I’ve never been (so) disappointed when a politician comes on and gets asked a question, and the first thing they do rather than answering a question is attack the opposition.
"It was a question that needed an answer.”
When immigration came up again later in the programme, presenter Fiona Bruce repeatedly asked Ms Trott which workers the Tories didn't want coming to the UK.
“It’s really important we have more training for people in the UK,” she said, pointing to lorry drivers as an example.
After being pressed repeatedly, Ms Trott said: “I would like lots of jobs to be done by British people.
Ms Bruce then interrupted to say: "He (Paphitis) has got his head in his hands so we’re not getting anywhere."
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