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Tory MP Mark Pritchard walked out of an election hustings in Shropshire on Thursday night, after getting into a blazing row with voters.

Locals said the Wrekin MP had made inflammatory comments about people using food banks having '58 inch TVs' and 'smoking £10 packs of cigarettes', which sparked fury from the room.

Mr Pritchard was filmed berating his constituents, telling them “some of you have let yourselves down tonight”, which prompted the audience to slow clap him until he left.

According to several people who attended the debate, hosted by Telford Trades Union Congress, Mr Pritchard was answering a question on Tory cuts to disability benefits from a member of the audience when he made the comments.

Labour candidate Dylan Harrison told the Mirror: "Mark decided to turn it into a quite outrageous attack on people who use foodbanks.

"And he started going on about a programme he'd watched on television and how this woman had been complaining about the fact that the baked beans she'd got from a foodbank weren't Heinz, and she had a 58 inch television and was smoking cigarettes.

"And he said she was "weight challenged", as if she didn't need the food."

He added: "It was a nasty thing to say and it didn't answer the question. It was deeply unpleasant and irrelevant."

Mr Pritchard berated the audience for their furious response, saying “I think some of you have let yourselves down tonight. It’s really sad.”

Some of the audience then began to slow-clap him, as he said “if you want to resort to personal abuse, it weakens you all.”

He went on: “I predicted what you would do. It was predictable. Enjoy your evening, God bless you all. I still believe in Unions, I just wish some of you would be a bit more courteous.”

Some in the audience began to complain as Mr Pritchard was leaving, but one voter shouted “If he wants to p*** off, let him p*** off.”

As he was saying he would be happy to stay if the crowd calmed down, there was a further furious outburst from the floor, and Mr Pritchard started to leave the room, waving as he walked to the door.

Lucy Allan, the other Tory MP for the region, was invited to the debate, but did not attend.

The Mirror contacted Mr Pritchard by phone, text and email, but he had not responded at the time of publication.

In 2013 Mr Pritchard was caught up in a storm after a tweet about food bank users 'spending their own money on cigarettes and alcohol.'

In a later statement to the Shropshire Star, he said: "I raised the issue following constituents raising the issue with me. Food banks meet a real need and offer a valuable community service.

"However, it is only fair to those people in real need of free food, and all the dedicated food bank volunteers, to ask the searching question whether some of those receiving free food then spend their own money on cigarettes and alcohol?"