Ouch.
Jeremy Corbyn was unable to put a cost on Labour's plan for free childcare for 1.3m youngsters during an interview with BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour. "It will cost... it will obviously cost a lot to do so, we accept that," he said, before agreeing with host Emma Barnett that the figure was £5.3bn. The stumble came as the Labour leader and Theresa May resumed election campaigning following a live TV debate.
The childcare part of the interview began with Mr Corbyn being asked whether he had the figure for its cost and replying: "Yes, I do." Pressed to give the number, he said: "I'll give you the figure in a moment."
"You don't know it? You're logging into your iPad here - you've announced a major policy and you don't know how much it will cost?" presenter Emma Barnett said.
"Can I give you the exact figure in a moment, please?" the Labour leader said.
Asked whether this indicated that voters should not trust Labour with their money, he answered: "Not at all."
[As a rule, you should at least know how much your policy costs on the day you announce it. And if you don't, have the guts to admit that - say you're mind's gone blank, anything, but don't try and fool people so brazenly.]
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40090520
Yeah, because all politicians memorise every figure in every costing for every scenario...
ReplyDeleteBBC is shamelessly pro-Tory nowadays.
May's gang have not even prepared any costings.
The incompetence of one implies nothing about the incompetence of the other. Any politician ought to know the major figures of their major policies, however, especially one they're actively campaigning on on the same day. It hardly seems like asking him to divulge where he was at 7pm on April 12th 1976.
ReplyDelete