TAKING TIPS FROM DIANE?
Vince Cable has a ‘Diane Abbott moment’ with Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid as he fumbles with his figures on public sector pay
The Senior Lib Dem had a torrid time on the GMB sofa as he tried to unveil his party’s new policy
ANOTHER senior politician has had their 'Diane Abbott moment' as Vince Cable fumbled with his figures on public sector pay after a grilling from Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
The former Cabinet minister had a torrid time on the Good Morning Britain sofa as he tried to unveil the Liberal Democrat’s new policy this morning.
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Mr Cable had a meltdown while trying to explain whether the plan would affect one million workers, or two million workers, or possibly even 5.4 million workers.
The Lib Dem’s shadow chancellor was forced to admit his figures were a “guess” in an embarrassing gaffe reminiscent of Ms Abbott’s car-crash performances.
Earlier this month the shadow home secretary was left humiliated after she tried to claim Labour would fund 10,000 new police officers with just £300,000 – an annual wage of just £30.
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Mr Cable, who is trying to win back his Twickenham seat having lost it at the 2015 General Election, was asked what the catch was with the pledge to give nurses and teachers an average £780 pay rise if the Lib Dems gain power.
He said there wasn’t one, but Ms Reid probed him on how many people it would give a pay rise to.
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The veteran politician stumbled, before saying “probably a million”, prompting the presenter to quiz him further.
She asked: “So about one million people? Five million people?”
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Mr Cable began to shift his number, now saying “about a couple”, leading Ms Reid to embarrass his guesswork by providing the real figures.
She said: “Ok, so according to the latest statistics, the total number of public sector workers as of December last year was 5.4 million people.”
He struggled again, claiming it depends on what “the core public sector is”, but was unable to say who the rise would cover, simply that it was costed at £1.4billion.
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“It covers the whole of the public sector and on Wednesday morning we’ll be setting out in detail exactly how this works and who goes to pay for it,” he added.
Mr Morgan then asked: “I’m a bit confused. Does that cover two million or 5.4 million?”
After further struggling by Mr Cable the host asked: “Somebody must have costed this out. Here’s an amount of money that it will cost us to cover x million people.
“I mean we’ve already seen Diane Abbott and the others train wreck over numbers. All we’re trying to do is get how many people have been factored in - is it two million or five million?”
Squirming again Mr Cable responded that it was “bound to me a fluid number”, prompting more mocking from Mr Morgan, who accused him of not having a clue.
The election candidate replied: “Well we have got a clue, and we have done the costings.”
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In response Mims Davies for the Tories said: “It’s no wonder Vince Cable wants to put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street – he has the same plan for raising taxes as John McDonnell and the same grasp of figures as Diane Abbott.
“A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for Jeremy Corbyn to wreak havoc on our economy and cave in to Europe in the Brexit negotiations. It is simply not worth the risk.”
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