While Diane Abbott has been pilloried for a number of interviews in which she has struggled with figures, one Question Time audience member reminded Theresa May that her party doesn’t have the perfect track record either.
After the prime minster referenced Abbott’s blooper, a member of the audience in York told her: “Philip Hammond, who’s the Chancellor of the Exchequer, got a £20 billion miscalculation a few weeks ago. So I think that’s a bit rude.”
The man was referencing an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in which the chancellor got the cost of HS2 wrong by £20 billion.
He claimed the new high speed transport link was due to cost the taxpayer £32 billion, when it is in fact expected to cost £52 billion.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott was derided for a car crash interview earlier last month in which she struggled to explain how much Labour’s policy of recruiting 10,000 more police officers would cost.
When questioned over figures related to Labour’s manifesto pledged to introduce 10,000 more police officers, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP got her numbers horribly mixed up.
She initially quoted the total cost of the plan as just £300,000 (which would leave each new officer with a salary of £30 a year).
When pressed on her maths by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari, she then responded: “No. I mean. Sorry. They will cost. It will cost. About £80 million.”