A tense exchange between two Plymouth Labour councillors has drawn comparisons to the viral "you have no authority here" Jackie Weaver Handforth Parish council meeting.
The clash happened during the Plymouth City Council Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel, where councillors were discussing changes affecting the NHS across Devon and Cornwall.
Major changes are coming to the joint NHS Integrated Care Board after the Labour government ordered a 33 per cent reduction in running costs.
This is expected to mean job losses and a significant restructure across the local health system.
Labour Councillor Will Noble (Moor View), who works as a patient services assistant at Derriford Hospital, questioned the impact the changes could have on NHS staff and services.
Cllr Noble also serves as a trade union representative, meaning the issue is close to him as it will likely affect the colleagues he supports.
During the discussion, Cllr Noble began raising wider concerns about past NHS decisions and government policy.
This led to the chair of the meeting, Labour Councillor Pauline Murphy (Efford and Lipson), to repeatedly ask him to stick to the question being discussed.
As the exchange became more heated, Cllr Murphy told him to stop speaking, saying she did not want political points being made during the scrutiny session.
Cllr Noble responded that he was there to scrutinise decisions affecting the local health service and said he believed some past decisions had been wrong, adding that he represented people.
The chair warned him about his tone and told him she would not allow what she described as "disrespectful" behaviour during the committee meeting.
At one point, Cllr Noble was told he could leave the meeting if he wished, before eventually getting up and walking out of the room.
The fiery exchange ended with Labour Councillor Angela Penrose (Compton) describing the situation as "really troubling" as the meeting moved on.
Health leaders told the panel that their role is to implement decisions set at the national level and that further details the changes are expected to be brought back to councillors at a future meeting.
Watch the full exchange below:
Sign up for free below to get notified of all the latest breaking news from Plymouth Plus.
