The broadcaster was hosting the first televised leaders debate of the Scottish parliament election campaign, with voters due to go to the polls in less than a month’s time on May 7.

Alongside Sarwar and Findlay, the SNP leader John Swinney, Green co-leader Ross Greer, Scottish LibDem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, and Reform UK Scotland leader Malcolm Offord were also on the stage.

During one of his opening contributions, Sarwar said: “Right now, people in Scotland, if they earn £33,500 or more, pay more tax in Scotland than they do in other parts of the UK, and people feel like they’re paying more and more and getting less and less in return.”

And during his opening speech, Findlay said: “We will stand up for hardworking Scots. We’ll bring down people’s taxes. We’ll fix public services, and the best way to stop that SNP majority that John Swinney thinks he’s got in the bag is to vote Scottish Conservative.”

Host Stephen Jardine asked an audience member for her response, leading her to call out both the Labour and Tory leaders.

“I just want to pick up on something that Anas Sarwar said when he mentioned that we pay more tax in this country but we get less for it,” the woman said.

“The reality is we get free prescriptions in this country. You don’t get that down south.

“We have free tuition fees. You don’t get that elsewhere in the UK.

“We have a nationalised rail service. We have a nationalised water service. You don’t have that anywhere else, but other parts of the UK want it.

“So I think it’s wrong to suggest that we pay more and get less.”

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To Findlay, she then went on: “And the second thing I’d like to say to Russell Findlay was he’s spoken twice now about cutting taxes and fixing public service.

“How are you going to do that with less money? Does that mean cuts? Is that what you’re trying to tell us?”

Findlay responded: “Well, yes.”

“There’s huge amounts of waste in Scottish Government spending,” he went on. “The SNP waste money on a grand scale.”

First Minister Swinney then pushed Findlay to explain exactly what the Tories would cut.

“What we would do is deal with out of control SNP benefits,” the Conservative leader said.

Green co-leader Greer said that was a “classic Tory” line, punching “down at the most vulnerable”.

Findlay said: “We absolutely value the safety net of social security, and our opponents will mischaracterise that, misrepresent it, but it’s ensuring that the right people receive those benefits.”