Clive Johnson said “plenty of opportunities have been missed” after the closure, but the Conservative candidate contended he did “everything he could” to keep the steelworks open. Gordon Henderson then asked “where were you?” to the Labour candidate for Sheppey. BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire asked: “What would happen to the Isle of Sheppey? How much money would come here? What would it be spent on?”

Mr Johnson replied: “The Tories didn’t invent poverty, but for Gordon to deny that it’s massively increased since 2010 is frankly amazing. 40 percent increase in the food banks, massive increases in poverty and large numbers of people who are working are poor as well. So the £83million does look a lot of money.“

Ms Derbyshire corrected to “£83billion”, before the Labour candidate continued: “Sorry, £83billion is a lot of money, but it indicates the importance of the job that we’re facing.

“So what would Labour do? The economy locally is very important, we’ve had missed opportunities during Gordon’s time with the steel mill, the wind turbine fabrication.“

Mr Henderson cut in: “Woah woah, I did everything I could to keep that steelworks open. I was marching with steelworkers in Cardiff.

“Where were you then? Where were you when they lost their patience, where were you? I was marching, where were you?”

Mr Johnson contended there were “plenty of opportunities missed”, before the Conservative candidate exclaimed: “It happened under a Labour Government! Don’t talk to me about steelworks.”

Mr Johnson continued: “320,000 apprenticeships, one million jobs which are appropriate for this sort of area.”

The comments follow Boris Johnson recently unveiling his party’s policies in the West Midlands as he pledged to “unleash the potential” of the UK and “forge a new Britain”.

With 18 days until the election, however, Mr Johnson has dropped by four percent in a recent poll produced by Opinium Research released on November 22.

According to the poll, since the announcement of a general election, the public’s desire to see Mr Johnson remain as Prime Minister has dropped from 39 percent to 35.

In tandem with Mr Johnson’s drop in popularity, Jeremy Corbyn has risen to 19 from 16 although he has fallen from his high of 20 on November 15.

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Within his party manifesto, Mr Johnson pledged to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses to the NHS. The extra 50,000 nurses comes within a £33.9billion funding boost for the health service.

Mr Johnson once again insisted his party will finally “get Brexit done”.

The Prime Minister said at the launch: “We can then get the whole thing completed in a matter of days if not weeks and we’re out by 31 January.”

Within the manifesto itself, the Tories have pledged that the part will not extend the transition period beyond December 2020.

The policy comes in contrast to what he termed as Mr Corbyn’s “miserable” timetable.

Under Mr Corbyn’s government, Labour would renegotiate a deal with the EU while also bringing forward a second referendum on the deal.

Mr Johnson also urged the public to finally halt the “dither and delay” that has stopped the UK’s from the EU.

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