BROADCASTER Jon Snow has told Ruth Davidson that the Conservative’s austerity agenda has been “utterly devastating” for working class communities.
 
Ms Davidson tried to distance herself from the “liberal elite” in the media who she suggested were out of touch with communities that voted for Brexit and Donald Trump.
 
The Scottish Conservative leader also grilled the Channel 4 News anchor about how many times he sang “f*ck the Tories” at Glastonbury.
 
But Mr Snow retorted that the UK Government has been “punishing the working classes for the misdeeds of the bankers”.
 
He controversially suggested MPs should get higher salaries to spend more time in the communities they’re supposed to serve rather than doing second jobs.
 
Ms Davidson has defended the UK Government’s welfare reform agenda at Holyrood, and has been under sustained attack from her opponents for her support of the “rape clause”.
 
Ten Conservatives - around one third of Ruth Davidson’s parliamentary group - make money from other jobs on top of their £61,778 a year MSPs salary.
 
Ms Davidson grilled Mr Snow about his James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Wednesday, where he revealed how the Grenfell Tower disaster convinced him the media was "too far removed" from communities outside the liberal elite.
 
Ms Davidson - who often promotes her humble roots as the the daughter of “working class Glaswegians who grew up in housing estates” - repeatedly protested when Mr Snow insisted she is also part of the elite.
 
She insisted: “Some of us didn’t have parents that went to Winchester and grandparents who went to Eton, John.”
 
Mr Snow said: “My point was that we arrive at the liberal elite, we are now, you are now…it’s wonderful that you are the leader of the Scottish Tories.”
 
He said he wants Grenfell to be a turning point for closer engagement between the elite and more deprived communities.
 
Ms Davidson suggested the liberal media “got it wrong” over recent major world events because they “probably don’t know that many people, and certainly aren’t people, who would vote for either Brexit or Trump”.
 
Mr Snow said: “You’ve got to be exposed to people who live different lives altogether, and for whom austerity has been utterly devastating.
 
“It is extraordinary and people will look back and say, ‘How did they get away with punishing the working classes for the misdeeds of the bankers in 2008?’
 
“That is effectively what has happened. They have borne the brunt of austerity.”
 
He added: “Here’s a controversial thing, I don’t actually think MPs are paid enough.
 
“I think they should be paid more and not allowed to do second jobs, not allowed to have their wives for them, I think they should be properly resourced, properly housed and they should meet in a sensible an intelligent way and go about the country and meet the people that they’re responsible for.
 
“I think our politics are to some extent in some organisational trouble, and I actually think the 17.5 percent of our GDP that is enshrined in the activities of The City have drained society of quite a lot of management capacity and leadership.”
 
The broadcaster, who revealed he once flirted with the idea of becoming a Conservative politician, was recently accused of singing “fuck the Tories” with selfie-hunters at Glastonbury.
 
“How many verses did you sing,” asked Ms Davidson.
 
Mr Snow replied: “I still have absolutely no recollection…I am a pretty certain I have never said it, it’s not something I would say, and it’s not something I believe.”