Excruciating moment Diane Abbott squirms as she is made to listen to her car-crash interview where she proposed paying cops just £30-a-year
The Shadow Home Secretary was blasted by Piers Morgan on nuclear weapons too
LABOUR were branded clueless today after Diane Abbott made FOUR humiliating mistakes in a car crash interview about the party’s Election vow to hire more cops.
The Shadow Home Secretary was ridiculed after claiming Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to recruit 10,000 extra police officers would cost about £300,000 – equal to a salary £30 a year.
Challenged by LBC’s Nick Ferrari, she then stumbled and said “they will cost…it will cost…£80 million” – rather than the £300 million briefed out by Labour overnight.
She went on to say a Labour government would hire 25,000 officers a year between 2017-2018 and 2021-2022 rather than 2,500.
And she capped an excruciating four minutes by contradicting herself again by saying Labour planned to recruit a staggering 250,000 cops in “year one”.
There are only 124,000 police officers employed across England and Wales.
And she went on to be humiliated by Good Morning Britain’s presenter Piers Morgan over Labour’s stance on nuclear weapons.
Jubilant Tories immediately ridiculed the Jeremy Corbyn ally and she was mocked online for her terrible performances.
Westminster insiders ranked it on a par with former Green leader Natalie Bennett’s “brain fade” in 2015 when she announced a £3 billion plan to build 500,000 new homes – meaning they’d cost £6,000 each.
Speaking later to the BBC, Diane Abbott claimed she “mis-spoke”.
She grimaced as the they replayed her humiliating grilling .
But she insisted she knew her figures and tore into media for reporting the gaffe rather than the “real issues”.
Yet Ms Abbott had also refused six times to say what the new rate of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) would be once Labour reversed Tory cuts to pay for the extra police.
And her leader Mr Corbyn rushed to her defence on a campaign trip to Southampton, saying: “I am not embarrassed in the slightest.”
He added: “We’ve corrected the figure and it’ll be absolutely clear now, today and in the manifesto.”
But Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it proved the risks of voting Labour given Ms Abbott could be in charge of the Home Office in just six weeks’ time.
She stormed: “Diane Abbott has laid bare the chaos that Britain would face if Jeremy Corbyn is voted into Downing Street.
“One of Corbyn’s closest allies has clearly shown that Labour’s sums don’t add up, they would weaken our defences, and their nonsensical promises aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.”
She added: “We believe we can control the budget and reduce crime.”
Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Brian Paddick said Diane Abbott’s day from hell showed Labour “cannot be trusted”.
He said: “Diane Abbott’s gaffe this morning shows that she and Labour are clueless and cannot be trusted wit law and order –they can’t even do the sums.
“It is clear we need to invest in community policing but this is not the whole story, online crimes are rising and the police don’t have the tools or training to be able to deal with it.”
Jeremy Corbyn’s key ally was trying to launch a fierce defence of Labour’s spending plans – after the announcement of the £3 million hiring drive.
Labour was hoping to grab votes by highlighting that police numbers have fallen by 20,000 since the Tories first came to power in 2010.
If elected, Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to hire an additional 10,000 community police officers between now and 2021-2022 – funded by reversing cuts to Capital Gains Tax.
Challenged that Labour had already pledged to use money from CGT to fund welfare payments and the arts, Diane Abbott said they weren’t “promises” but indications of how the money could be spent.
Some of Diane Abbott's other foot in mouth moments...
2 May 2017 – LBC
“If we recruit the 10,000 policemen and women over a four year period, we believe it’ll be about £300,000… Sorry …No, I mean, sorry … They will cost [long pause], it will cost, erm, about, about £80m.”
2 May 2017 – ITV’s Good Morning Britain
“We believe there are many more pressing threats [than nuclear weapons]. The debate around pressing the button actually detracts from talking about the real issues… Chemical warfare…”
2012 – Twitter
“Dubious of black people claiming they’ve never experienced racism. Ever tried hailing a taxi I always wonder?”
2010 – BBC
“West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children.”
2003 – Diane Abbott sends her children to a private school.
But in 1997 she said of Harriet Harman: “She [Harman] made the Labour Party look as if we do one thing and say another.”
She was also was screamed at by GMB host Piers Morgan this morning who pressed her to answer whether she would push the nuclear button.
But the leftie claimed there were “much more pressing threats” than nuclear weapons – and repeatedly dodged the question.
The GMB host yelled: “It’s yes or no! It’s one of the single most important questions any government in the world could have…
“If you have to use it – would you use it? Why can nobody on the Labour side say yes or no to that simple question?”
Ms Abbott said there were “much more pressing threats” such as terrorism.
The ITV host screamed back: “What could be more pressing than someone about to nuke us into extinction?”
One Labour insider said: “If your aim was to ensure Jeremy didn’t become Prime Minister, you couldn’t do a better job than that.”
And Twitter users were quick to slam her for the excruciating interviews.
Abbott and Cost Hell, oh!
THAT car crash interview in full:
Nick Ferrari: Where will the money come from Diane Abbott?
Diane Abbott: The money will come from reversing some of the tax cuts for the rich the Tories have pushed through. The tax cut we’re specifically identifying to pay for the 10,000 police is the cut in capital gains tax.
NF: So how much would 10,000 police officers cost?
DA: Well, if we recruit the 10,000 police over a four-year period, we believe it will be about £300,000.
NF: £300,000 for 10,000 officers? What are you paying them?
DA: No, I mean, sorry…
NF: How much will they cost?
DA: They will cost, it will cost about, about £80million.
NF: About £80million? How do you get to that figure?
DA: We get to that figure because we anticipate recruiting 25,000 extra police officers a year at least over four years. And we are looking at average police wages generally but also specifically police wages in London.
NF: And this will be funded by reversing the cuts in capital gains tax? But since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the party, that money has also been promised to reverse cuts in education, in arts, in sports. The Conservatives say you’ve spent this money already.
DA: We’ve not promised the money to any area, we’ve just pointed out that the cuts in capital gains tax will cost the taxpayer over £2billion.
We will fund the 10,000 extra police officers by using some — not all, but just some — of the £2billion.
NF: And the £80million is the figure we use?
DA: Yeah, yeah.
NF: But I don’t understand. If you divide £80million by 10,000, you get £8,000. Is that what you are going to pay these policemen and women?
DA: No, we are talking about a process over four years.
NF: I don’t understand. What is he or she going to get? Eighty million divided by 10,000 equals 8,000. What are these officers going to be paid?
DA: We will be paying them the average…
NF: Has this been thought through?
DA: Of course it’s been thought through.
NF: Where are the figures?
DA: The figures are the additional cost in year one, when we anticipate recruiting about 250,000 policemen, will be £64.3million.
NF: 250,000 policemen?
DA: And women.
NF: So you are getting more than 10,000. You’re recruiting 250,000?
DA: No, we are recruiting two thousand and — perhaps — two hundred and fifty.”
NF: So where did 250,000 come from?
DA: I think you said that, not me.
NF: I can assure you, you said that, because I wrote it down.
DA: In year one, obviously, we are getting ready to recruit. But in year two, the cost will be £64.3million.
In year three, the cost will be £139.1million. Year four the cost will be £217million. And year five, the cost will be £298million. And that can be amply covered by reversing the cuts in capital gains tax.