Irvine's Maritime Museum hosted Radio 4's Any Questions last Friday night, with the economy and Labour's finance plans coming under scrutiny.

On the panel at the BBC show, hosted by Alex Forsyth, were Minister for Trade and East Lothian MP Douglas Alexander,  journalist Angela Haggerty, Conservative Peer and former Scotland Office Minister Lord Offord and SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire Pete Wishart, the former Runrig keyboard player.

Following an introduction from Maritime Museum manager David Mann, the debate quickly got underway.

Scottish Greens member Rebecca Glen asked that owing to the much-publicised £20billion black hole in Labour’s proposed budgets, if the new Government would borrow money, tax the rich or continue the political choice of austerity.

Mr Alexander said he didn’t accept there was a choice between spending or taxing to get out of the problems they have inherited.  A whole number of spending commitments had been made by the previous administration – with no money allocated, he claimed.

There had to be economic stability, reform within the public sector and an increase in levels of investment.

Mr Offord said the economy was in better shape than had been claimed and that the Tories had halved unemployment and slashed inflation. He argued that £400bn had been spent on the pandemic and £100bn on the cost of living crisis.

Mr Wishart said the people of Irvine deserved to know what Labour were planning and that his party told them there was a black hole, only to be told this was “mince” and “misinformation” from Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

Meanwhile Ms Haggerty said normal people were interested in how their lives looked, no matter what mechanism they used to fix it. We couldn’t have more austerity and the state of the public services were “scary”, she added.

Questioner James McQuillan asked if the SNP amendment proposing to end the two-child cap was “showboating”.

Asked by the host if this could be mitigated in Scotland, Mr Wishart said the Scottish Government did not have the powers to do everything.

Mr Alexander said the new deal for working people would lift 200,000 Scots out of poverty. Mr Haggerty said the cap “absolutely” had to be abolished.

There were laughs when the panel was asked if Kamala Harris had what it took to defeat Ayrshire hotelier Donald Trump to the White House.

Ms Haggerty said there was now some “vibrancy” about the campaign and it would be a great achievement if a woman of colour was elected.

Mr Alexander paid tribute to outgoing President Biden, an “incredibly impressive figure”. But he added that Vice President Harris used to be a prosecutor as did Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was Director of Public Prosecutions, so maybe it could be a good year for prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic.

The panel were asked if they supported GB Energy, a new publicly owned, clean power company for Britain aimed at reducing bills.

Wishart said it could be a good idea if it unlocked potential in the North Sea.

Alexander was heckled when said we had to do something to counter Russian leader Vladmir Putin but argued that this new move would help keep bills down.