Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi ‘doesn’t know’ if Jeremy Corbyn wants to shoot wealthy

Andrew Neil told Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi: "Nothing has gone right for your party in the last 48 hours." Photo: BBC - Credit: Archant

Andrew Neil has drilled into a Tory MP over the first 48 hours of their election campaign where ‘nothing has gone right’.

Neil slammed Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi over the first two days of the campaign trail, which saw offensive comments made about Grenfell victims, a Tory candidate say people on benefits should be shot, and comparisons drawn between Jeremy Corbyn and Stalin.

“I think Boris has got a point,” Zahawi said. “If Jeremy Corbyn gets his way this country will become Britainzuela.”

Andrew Neil replied: “I’m not asking you about Venezuela I’m asking you if it is in any way a sensible comparison to compare Jeremy Corbyn’s attitude to business people and rich people to Stalin’s persecution of Kulak farmers?”

The Tory business minister said that Corbyn is obsessed with ‘tax-take’ and hitting businesses who are wealth creators.

Neil said: “That’s your line. But your leader compared him to Stalin. This is not about raising taxes or opposing people to take big cuts in income. Stalin deported two million Kulaks to Siberia and had hundreds of thousands of them shot.

“The comparison between that and Mr Corbyn is absurd, isn’t it?”

Zahawi said the comparison was not absurd, and said it is a ‘dangerous’ route to go down to criticise entrepreneurs.

Zahawi then shocked Andrew Neil by saying he “was not sure” whether Corbyn would want to shoot the wealthy, adding: “You’ll have to ask him that question.”

“This is getting absurd,” Neil said. “[Corbyn’s] not shooting people or starving them to death is he?