Journalist and economist Liam Halligan branded the discussion “infantile” on BBC Question Time as he appeared to crack under pressure from an audience member and his fellow panelists over the UK economy.

Fiona Bruce presented the topical debate show with politicians, commentators and members of the public, from Northampton (Thursday).

On the panel were government minister Sir Chris Bryant MP, former Conservative culture secretary Nadine Dorries; Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller MP, former Labour adviser and radio host Baroness Hazarika, and Mr Halligan.

During a debate on the economy, Mr Halligan discussed the negative effect a rise in national insurance was having for employers, but he started to flounder when asked by an audience member what he would do to boost the country’s coffers.

Labour MP Sir Chris and presenter Ms Bruce joined with the audience member as they continued to ask Mr Halligan, who was attempting to explain his reasoning and “what his answer was?”

The audience member appeared to be enjoying the discomfort of the economist and shouted from his pew once more: “What’s the answer?”

An exasperated Mr Halligan said “it’s an infantile discussion” in response to his hecklers, to which Ms Bruce asked: “Sorry, are you calling that member of the audience ‘infantile’?”

As a chorus of boos erupted, Mr Halligan quickly denied the accusation, exclaiming: “No, I’m saying” as the BBC

camera cut the gentleman in the audience with a big smile on his face clearly seeing the funny side.

Mr Halligan, who is a columnist for the Telegraph, had said the answer was “you have to make the state smaller”, which was again greeted by groans and boos from the Northampton audience.

He continued: “It’s not about spending cuts, it’s about getting the economy growing, then you can sustain more government spending.”

Continuing the pantomime atmosphere, there were then calls from the audience of “how?”, to which Mr Halligan responded “you get the economy growing by taxing it less”.