There was no Hillary Clinton, Nigel Farage or Donald Trump in the hot seats.
But the passions were still running high at a Question Time-style event at Huddersfield Town Hall.
An audience made up of Kirklees residents was given the chance to put their political leaders under the spotlight with a host of tough questions about the state of the borough’s finances.
With Huddersfield University politics expert Dr Andy Mycock playing the David Dimbleby role, councillors were grilled by members of the public who signed up to attend the debate.
The panel included Kirklees’ Labour leader Clr David Sheard and leaders of the council’s opposing groups, Clr David Hall (Conservative) and Green group leader Clr Andrew Cooper.
Audience members were told there was a potential £65m shortage of cash at Kirklees by 2021 and the majority of the reserves would be used up.
Nick Martinek asked if after Brexit, the council would make sure all its procurement was with British companies.
Peter Rock asked if opposition parties would share the pain of the cuts or “snipe from the sidelines”.
Alex Lukic asked why the council wasn’t collecting all its council tax and business rates.
He claimed Kirklees was one of the worst in the country and had missed out on over £10m.
Clr Sheard said he did not recognise the figures and pointed out 100% rate would never be achieved as “people die”.
Clr Cooper said some firms were wilfully avoiding paying rates by going bankrupt and then relaunching under a different name.
Martin Kilgallon asked why vital respite care services for his autistic children were under threat.
Sharon Sullivan asked why her small business could get no help with business rates relief after she had to care for her terminally-ill husband.
One man asked how long it would take for Kirklees to go bankrupt.
Clr Sheard said the “post-truth” era seemed to be affecting people’s understanding and opinions of council finances.
He said: “We know we’ve got shrinking income and increasing demand.
“There’s going to be drastic changes and we will be much much smaller.”
Clr Hall said it was “obvious” to him seven or eight years ago that council finances would never be the same again and the cuts should have started earlier.
Clr Cooper said the cuts to local authorities in the north were ideologicial. He added: “When money is needed, money is found. It’s all about government priorities.”
About 30 members of the public attended.
