Boris Johnson has come under fire for his lack of empathy over the treatment of a four-year-old boy who was left sleeping on the floor of a hospital because of a bed shortage.
Jack Williment-Barr had to be covered with coats by his mother Sarah Williment to keep warm as he waited for a bed at Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) with suspected pneumonia.
A photograph of the youngster has been widely shared on social media, turning his treatment into a political row – just days before the polls open.
Mr Johnson was accused of not caring about the plight of the boy after he repeatedly refused to look at the photo during a TV interview – before pocketing the reporter’s phone on which he was being shown the picture.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said the actions showed a man with “no empathy and no moral compass”.
Former Scottish secretary Alistair Carmichael added: “This is one of those moments that truly makes you stop and stare in disbelief.
“We have to remind ourselves that this is the prime minister of our country, snatching and hiding a journalist’s phone because he couldn’t face what he was confronted with.
“That a sick child should be forced to sleep on the floor because of a lack of hospital beds is shameful.”
During an election visit to Bristol, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn branded the treatment of the four-year-old a “disgrace”.
“A child being treated on the floor is a disgrace to our society,” Mr Corbyn said.
In a move seen by critics as an effort to distract from the case, Mr Johnson later told workers in Sunderland that he is “looking at” abolishing the BBC licence fee.
The prime minister said that while the Tories were currently “not planning to get rid of all TV licence fees”, the current system “bears reflection”.
After being asked whether he would abolish TV licences altogether, Mr Johnson replied: “Well, I don’t think at this late stage in the campaign I’m going to make an unfunded spending commitment like that, but what I certainly think is that the BBC should cough up and pay for the licences for the over-75s as they promised to do.
“But at this stage we are not planning to get rid of all TV licence fees, though I am certainly looking at it.”
The comments came after shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour would set a February budget to end austerity “once and for all”.
Mr McDonnell said his budget will also put more money into an emergency package of reforms to Universal Credit while Labour designs a replacement social security system.
In the first 100 days of a Labour government, the process of bringing water and energy into public ownership will also begin, with boards set up to run the utilities.
Mr McDonnell said: “Thanks to privatisation and outsourcing and offshoring and similar initiatives pursued by the Thatcher government and Conservative governments since in the name of market efficiency, more and more aspects of our lives are shaped by remote corporate interests over which we have little or no control.
“So the second key priority for me and a Labour government will be to change that.”
He added: “We’ll make sure that decisions are taken locally by those who understand the services – those who use them and those who deliver them.”