A BBC Question Time audience member tonight ripped into Labour’s panellist for “not answering questions”.
The audience member accused shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson of giving “fake answers”.
He said he was a former Labour voter and urged the party to give him a reason to back them again in a passionate contribution to the panel show.
The audience member said: “I’ve come to this programme really wanting to listen to what the Labour Party is going to say. I used to vote for the Labour Party and you’ve not answered any questions at all.”
His comment prompted members of the audience to laugh and clap as Ms Phillipson looked on.
To further applause, he added: “I just want to hear what the Labour Party wants to say but tonight you’ve said nothing, you’ve just given us fake answers.
“Just answer the question and convince me to vote for you, I want to. Convince me, tell me how.”
The Labour frontbencher replied: “Sorry I’m absolutely doing my level best to answer as directly as I can.”
He said: “Please make me vote for you.”
The moment came as the show, taking place in Coventry, discussed the Gaza conflict.
Ms Phillipson said: “I hope I’ve addressed the question around the International Criminal Court. If you want me to set out what Labour would do on education for example happy to do that.”
The audience member replied: “In two months’ time you could be the Education Secretary and if I were you, my advice would be it’s a political choice.
“You can actually take the education budget and make it an investment… and that reduces the budget deficit, that helps everyone, invest in education, do something Labour Party, please do.”
The shadow education secretary insisted education will be “central to the work of the next Labour government”.
She added: “We will invest more in education whether it’s more teachers in our classrooms, universal free breakfast clubs for our children, more mental health support in our schools, careers guidance, work experience, more skills training, we’ve said a lot, we’ll be saying more going into the election. But we do have to be upfront with the public about the scale of the challenge that we face as a country.”
