BBC 'Question Time' Audience Member Launches Tirade Against 'Compassionate Conservatives' Over Tax Credits

Watch Question Time Woman Tell Dimbleby Why There Are No 'Compassionate Conservatives'

A young woman last night launched an impassioned rant against "compassionate Conservatives", lambasting a millionaire Tory MP for his government's treatment of under 25s, the poor and disabled.

The 'Question Time' audience member claimed that students were being "screwed ... in every single way possible", and predicted that voters would sooner or later oust the Tories.

Responding to a question on tax credits - wage top-up fees due to be slashed by the government despite a pre-election pledge not to - the woman said: "Personally I don't think there's any such thing as a compassionate Conservative.

"You don't care about the poor, you don't care about the vulnerable, you don't care about the disabled.

"You don't care about young people or students, where you've absolutely screwed us in every single way possible.

She finished, saying: "The Conservatives will die out, sooner or later!"

Presenter David Dimbleby, shot back, saying: "They didn't show much sign of dying out at the election."

But the woman responded: "23 or something percent of the electorate, so..."

David Cameron's party amassed 36.9% of the vote in May's general election, but at a turnout of just 66%, the figure of those able-voters who backed the Tories is whittled down to 23%.

Friday's intervention from the young woman sparked support on social media, with hundreds, including a Labour shadow minister, voicing their approval.

Liz McInnes, MP for Heywood and Middleton and part of Jeremy Corbyn's frontbench communities and local government team, posted: "Please remember that the 'compassionate conservative' who spoke against tax credit cuts then voted for them."

Her remark referenced a stinging speech by Tory MP Heidi Allen, a newly elected member who used her maiden speech to criticise George Osborne for "betraying" Conservative values and having "forgotten" what the party should stand for.

Allen later that day voted against a Labour proposal to scrap the planned cuts, the motion eventually being defeated by 317 to 295.

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