A Question Time guest nailed the state of the UK after 13 years of Tory rule by declaring: “The country feels broken.”
Ayesha Hazarika won applause from the Clacton-on-Sea audience as she hit out at the “corruption and cronyism” which has taken place since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
She also hit out at the “revolving door” of ministers as she accused the Tories of “governing for themselves” instead of ordinary voters.
“The country feels like it’s in decline at the moment,” Hazarika - a former Labour adviser-turned-broadcaster, said. “I speak to people all over the country - the country feels broken for a lot of people.
″All the things we took for granted as while ago - it’s like an endurance test trying to get your driving licence or something like that. Or getting on a train, it’s like an endurance test these days.
″We also have to be honest about some of the big political decisions we’ve taken as a country, which hasn’t helped. Brexit, I’m afraid, has made this country into a much more difficult place to live in as well.”
She said an incoming Labour government would have to be “honest with voters about the difficult situation it will inherit”.
“There isn’t going to be loads of money to splash around,” she added.
Hazarika said the UK has also suffered from a lack of “stable governance”.
She said: “We’ve had three prime ministers in just the last 12 months. We’ve had a revolving door of ministers who never get their feet under the table.
“Look at the housing crisis this country faces - we’ve had 21 housing ministers in a very short period of time.”
She added: “Many of us in here tonight or watching at home are going to feel sick at the fact that they don’t feel that a lot of people in power are governing for you - they feel like they’re governing for themselves.
“There’s a lot of corruption, there’s a lot of cronyism.”
One audience member of the programme had earlier taken aim at the entire political class by telling them “you couldn’t run a whelk stall”.
Meanwhile, presenter Fiona Bruce revealed that a special edition of Question Time will take place on June 22 to mark the seventh anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
In a break from the norm, the entire audience will be made up of Leave voters to establish how their views on quitting the EU have changed since 2016.