Andy McDonald has criticised Have I Got News For You after the satirical quiz show took a pop at his constituency on X (formerly Twitter).
The Labour MP slammed the show for telling a “smart-arsed” joke about Middlesbrough after they attempted to lampoon James Cleverly’s comments about Stockton North.
He said: “This smart- arsed post says so much about the sneering condescension of the patronising elite and the chattering classes.
“Middlesbrough was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution- the Infant Hercules- and was an economic powerhouse and can be again.
“But yes we’ve been hammered by 13 years of Tory austerity & thanks to them, half of the children in my town live in poverty.
“So, instead of highlighting grotesque regional inequalities & the misery caused by the rich, London-centric economic and social establishment, you choose to insult a proud town on the receiving end of years of unfair treatment at a time when the Chancellor has delivered a statement that continues to deliver for the wealthy leaving Middlesbrough, and many other towns, unable to discharge its statutory obligations and now having to sell its major assets to try and deliver a balanced budget.
“So whilst food banks creak under the strain, and thousands of kids go to school hungry, you crack on and have your fun at our expense. You express yourself about as cleverly as the Home Secretary.”
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