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Prime Minister Theresa May meets Cathy Mohan at Abingdon market in Oxfordshire Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images

Angry voter confronts Theresa May over welfare cuts

“I can’t live on £100 a month.”

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Theresa May was confronted by an angry voter over welfare cuts while she was campaigning today ahead of June’s general election.

The woman, who gave her name as Cathy Mohan, said she had learning difficulties and challenged May over changes to state handouts for disabled people.

“I can’t live on £100 (€118) a month,” she said.

May, who has been accused of avoiding the public in the campaign ahead of the vote on 8 June, tried to answer Mohan but was interrupted.

“The fat cats keep the money and us lot get nothing,” Mohan said in the Oxfordshire market town of Abingdon, west of London.

May responded by saying “We’ve got a lot of plans” and that the goal was to ensure welfare payments are “focused on those who are most in need”.

Some shoppers stopped to shake the prime minister’s hand during the 11-minute visit, and she posed for pictures.

One man told her to “keep it up”, while May was also told she was the “best of a bad bunch”, to which she responded: “I’ll take that as flattering.”

Brexit

The prime minister called the snap vote in a bid to increase her parliamentary majority ahead of Britain’s complex talks to leave the European Union.

Opinion polls give her Conservative Party a double digit lead over the main opposition, the Labour Party.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meanwhile drew large crowds at a campaign rally in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, northern England.

Supporters who could not get inside the town hall filled the square outside — prompting Corbyn afterwards to come out and address them from the balcony.

May later received several questions about her government’s cuts to disability benefits in a question and answer session broadcast on Facebook Live.

Her debate received 16,400 reactions out of which, 10,000 were ‘angry’, 4,300 were ‘like’ and 1,200 were ‘love’.

© AFP 2017

Read: Kelvin MacKenzie leaves Sun ‘by mutual consent’ after comparing Ross Barkley to gorilla

Read: Édouard Philippe: France’s little-known new prime minister

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    Mute Eamonn Ó'Tíghearnáin
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:07 AM

    Ironically, this has also made the news on bbc.co.uk

    55
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    Mute Ciaran Morgan
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:25 AM

    Meanwhile back in rte the gravy train rolls on!

    48
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    Mute Slap'stick Ireland
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    Feb 18th 2013, 9:56 AM

    Any chance RTE journalists might go on strik, for a few years.

    34
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    Mute mattoid
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:24 AM

    @Eamonn & Paddy
    I’m confused now – is it on the BBC website or not? ;-)

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    Mute Paddy O'Reilly
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:43 AM

    OK it’s there now, but I wasn’t when I checked half an hour ago http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21495821

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    Mute Paddy O'Reilly
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:03 AM

    Unsurprisingly this story doesn’t appear on Auntie’s own website.

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    Mute Republic Of Zen
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    Feb 18th 2013, 9:24 AM

    Fire the ones that strike. Bam. Problem solved.

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    Mute Strongbow63
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    Feb 18th 2013, 1:24 PM

    Spoken like a true capitalist.

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    Mute bacoxy
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    Feb 18th 2013, 8:07 AM

    No news is good news they say…

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    Mute David Walls
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    Mar 20th 2013, 2:21 AM

    Well it seems you got there before me, only because I read it later!!

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    Mute Waffler Towers
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    Feb 18th 2013, 9:46 AM

    Redeploy them to RTE

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    Mute Joe O Connor
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    Feb 18th 2013, 10:40 AM

    It’s not like we’re talking Gardai or Nurses here is it? Journalists I’m afraid will never get my sympathy vote.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Feb 18th 2013, 10:50 AM

    Thanks a lot Joe :)

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    Mute Joe O Connor
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    Feb 18th 2013, 10:56 AM

    Sorry Michelle. Nothing personal. And if I really did have a downer on journalists I’d hardly be reading this page now would I? God bless and Good luck!

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Feb 18th 2013, 11:08 AM

    No worries, we know you love us really.

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    Mute Emily Elephant
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    Feb 18th 2013, 11:53 AM

    Let’s all hope the BBC Asian Network survives this calamity. Imagine a world without it!

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    Mute Gary Mason™
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    Feb 18th 2013, 12:19 PM

    Anyone with a twitter account seems to think they are a journalist these days, copy & paste

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    Mute David Walls
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    Mar 20th 2013, 2:19 AM

    No news is good news!!

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