THE star of the award-winning film ‘I, Daniel Blake’ told a York audience it was giving an important voice to people who were not normally heard.

But he said he feared the movie - winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and many other film festivals -would not be watched by the politicians who needed to see it, such as Theresa May and Iain Duncan Smith.

Comedian Dave Johns took part in a question and answer session at New Earswick Folk Hall last night before a community cinema group, Film at the Folk Hall, screened Ken Loach’s hit film, and prior to the comedian performing at York’s Barbican.

Abigail Scott Paul, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, asked him about the role the film has played in the discussion of poverty in the UK.

Dave plays a carpenter in the film who is out of work due to ill health and has a nightmare journey through the bureaucratic benefits system.

He told The Press how an elderly man had come up to him in a shop and said: “Can you tell Ken Loach the next time you see him that this film has given a voice back to the working class who haven’t been listened to for the last 40 years and have been ignored?” Dave said: “I think that sums up the film in a nutshell.”

Mr Duncan Smith has attacked the film, claiming it painted an unrealistic picture and treated jobcentre staff unfairly.

Dave said starring in I, Daniel Blake had changed his life at the age of 60, catapulting him to film festivals in cities across Europe, from San Sebastian to Locarno.

He told how his 11-year-old daughter had asked him if it was true he was up for Best Actor award against Michael Fassbender in the British Independent Film Awards.

“I said it was and she said: “Smash him dad, smash him!” So when I got the award, I said to Michael Fassbender:’ Consider yourself smashed!’”

He added that he would be referencing the film when he came to perform in York again at the Crescent Community Venue on June 18.

Sam Watling, chair of the Film at the Folk Hall group, said he was ‘proud and excited’ the actor had given the audience a real insight into the world of ‘I, Daniel Blake.’ “We feel the film is a very fitting one for us as Film at the Folk Hall’s main aim is to address social isolation,” he added.