The Shadow Foreign Secretary was caught out when asked how much Labour would raise from tax hikes on the wealthy
EMILY Thornberry has become the latest Labour politician to get in a flap over numbers after she was forced to reach for a briefing document during a live TV interview.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary was asked on Sky News how much the party's proposal to raise tax for high earners would raise.
She was immediately flustered and asked, "Can I get my sheet?", before reading directly from a booklet containing details of Labour's spending plans.
Earlier this month Diane Abbott was ridiculed when she appeared to suggest that it costs just £30 to hire a police officer, and yesterday morning John McDonnell had to look up the size of the budget deficit.
The latest gaffe came when Ms Thornberry was being interviewed by Sky's Kay Burley after the release of the Labour manifesto.
Asked how much the party wanted to raise from a tax hike on those earning more than £80,000, she said: "Oh. I’ve got a sheet, can I get my sheet?
“Let me just go through it. We’ve got income tax rises for the top 5 per cent and that will raise £6.4billion."
Ms Burley proceeded to challenge that claim, pointing out that some economists claim the policy would in fact raise almost no money at all.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary replied: "These things are always open to a certain amount of argy-bargy, there’s always a certain amount of disagreement about whether you’re going to be able to raise as much as you think you will."
The bizarre encounter came on the same afternoon that Diane Abbott repeatedly got lost on stage while addressing the Police Federation conference.
The Shadow Home Secretary walked straight past the podium when she came on stage, then almost walked into a wall at the end of her speech.
She was heckled by police officers angry at her views on spit hoods which are supposed to protect police from suspects spitting at them.
Ms Abbott recently drew derision when she apparently promised to hire 10,000 new police officers at a cost of just £300,000 a year.
And yesterday morning, Mr McDonnell had to be handed a note by an aide when he was asked how much the country's deficit is.
