BBC Question Time host Fiona Bruce was left exasperated alongside the show's panel after economist Gary Stevenson claimed that most of them - if not all of them - are £20,000 richer since the coronavirus pandemic compared to the working class.
Speaking on the broadcaster's political debate show, former financial trader Stevenson hit out at the surge of "financial inequality" in Britain, highlighting its biggest impact during the first year of the pandemic.
Addressing the Question Time audience, Stevenson explained: "The Government deficit is £1trillion now, which is £20,000 for every single adult in the country. So if every single one of this audience is not £20,000 cash richer, someone else has your money.
"Does anyone know who has that trillion pounds? It's the richest people in the country. If we pause the economy and give £1trillion, £20,000 for every adult in this room and the rest of the country to the richest people in the country, and then unpause the economy, what do you think will happen to living standards for ordinary people? They will collapse."
Gary Stevenson and Fiona Bruce clashed on BBC's Question Time
BBC
Revealing the stark amount of money the richest in Britain made during the pandemic, Stevenson added: "This is a problem of growing wealth inequality, the extremely rapid growth of wealth of the richest people in the country. The average billionaire increased their wealth by £630million in the first year alone of Covid.
"These men and women in the audience are not £20,000 richer since covid. I'll tell you who probably is - every single person on this panel."
As the panellists appeared taken aback by Stevenson's claim, host Fiona Bruce interjected, telling him: "Hang on, don't include us in all this.
"I don't know if you've seen the way the BBC works, but they're not exactly raising salaries all that much."
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The Question Time panel squirmed as Stevenson claimed they are all '£20,000 richer' since Covid
BBC
As Bruce kept an expression of disbelief in Stevenson's claim, he responded: "This growth in wealth inequality is going to keep the middle class and the working class poor, it's going to cost government services, and that is the people in this room.
"Their kids, their grandkids. We are not dealing with wealth inequality."
When pressed by Bruce on what the Labour Government's solution should be, Stevenson suggested that "millionaires and billionaires" should be taxed, rather than the working and middle classes.
He told the Question Time panel: "We have to shift the tax system. We have a tax system which taxes ordinary working people 30, 40, 50, 60 per cent, while people like the Duke of Westminster can inherit £10billion and pay nothing.
"If you do, that, wealth will be sucked out of the middle class. It's already been completely bankrupted, the working class. It will bankrupt the Government, which is what we are seeing, and there'll be poverty.
Stevenson told the panel that there will be 'poverty' among the working and middle classes if we do not 'tax wealth'
BBC
"There'll be no middle class left. Why are we taxing working people more than billionaires? Tax wealth, not work. Give these people a break, give their kids a chance, tax the billionaires."
As Bruce highlighted that a wealth tax system has been "done in other countries before" with little success, Stevenson stressed that Britain has also used the system before, which enabled Britons to have "more financial security".
He concluded: "We did it here in the 50s, the 60s, the 70s, and people like my dad, my granddad, were able to buy houses, have financial security, have pensions, have retirements, go on holidays.
"We did it here, and we're losing that now because we're not taxing the rich. The rich are getting richer and ordinary families are losing the ability to buy houses, have kids. We can do it, we've done it before."
