Salma Yaqoob called Tory bigwig Iain Duncan Smith a “scrounger” on Thursday’s Question Time, attacking the secretary for works and pensions over austerity measures that have left "13 million Britons living below the poverty line".
"I’m sitting next to Iain Duncan Smith who labels poor people as scroungers when you {IDS} claim £39 for a breakfast, like you can’t afford your own breakfast, and you live on your wife’s estate and have taken a million pounds of taxpayers’ money, that’s what I call scrounging," the Birmingham chair of Stop the War and the former leader of the Respect party said.
"What a load of old nonsense," replied the angered Tory, before dismissing his attacker with a wave of the hand. "I have never, ever labelled them as scroungers at all," he said, shaking his head. He also denied that he had claimed the money for breakfast.
Earlier, Yaqoob had called Duncan-Smith "patronising" when he spoke about poverty.
“There are people in this country, 13 million people, who are now below the poverty line. People in one of the richest countries in the world face the indignity of relying on food banks," she said.
"My full-time job is in mental health and I have seen myself how people have become suicidal. I have counselled people who have lost members of their family who did not want to go on, because they didn't want to be a burden after having their support taken away. These are very, very real issues.
"We have this drive on people called 'scroungers' but half the people on welfare benefits are pensioners. Our pensioners are not scroungers. And 60% of people claiming benefits are in work, because their wages are not paying enough.
Yaqoob, who quit George Galloway's Respect party after the Bradford MP called the Julian Assange rape allegations "bad sexual etiquette' has often clashed with politicians on Question Time. She has since been courted by both the Green party and Labour, who offered her two safe seats in Birmingham and the Black Country in 2010, but Yaqoob turned both down.
"If it was just about my career it would have been a nice move, but it is not all about me," she said.