The leader of a Scottish political party has said that his own flesh and blood are "at it" when it comes to using food banks.
Tam Laird made the stinging claim at a Kilmarnock hustings event organised ahead of tomorrow's General Election.
The Scottish Libertarian leader was responding to a question about poverty when he made the damning assertion.
One audience member asked the panel on Friday night – which hosted Westminster hopefuls from the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats and SNP – how they would use £1 million to tackle deprivation in the Ayrshire town.
Mr Laird asked in response: "I need to ask: how are you defining poverty? Speaking as someone who worked in Africa quite a lot and has seen actual poverty, where people are burying their children because they don’t have access to clean water or toilet facilities.
"Can I ask how you’re defining poverty? Is there anybody in Scotland, for example, dying because they can’t get access to clean water or toilet facilities?
"I mean, if you have a toilet in your house and access to clean running water, you’re basically Karl Marx’s bourgeoisie; you are the one per cent on this planet. So when you talk of poverty, I really need to know what you mean."
The member of the audience said that he thought that any family, whether they’re working or unemployed, and are sanctioned and on benefits and need to access a food bank would constitute poverty.
Mr Laird responded: “Well okay, I can only speak within my own family. I know some people in my family who use food banks and they’re at it. And that’s just a fact.
"But I do think the answer to poverty is more jobs."
Mr Laird, who served as an infantry soldier for five years in Northern Ireland, was an SNP member before rising through the ranks of the Scottish Libertarians.
The fringe party believes in Scottish independence and supports Brexit.
At the meeting, Mr Laird also accused the SNP of not wanting "true independence."
Mr Laird was only at the hustings event to represent his deputy Stef Johnstone, who is standing as a candidate in the Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency.
Ms Johnstone was unable to attend due to being unwell.
Mr Laird's radical remarks were rounded off when he left the stage early because he had to go to his work.
