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Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott left tongue-tied during TV interview on anti-terror measures
DIANE ABBOTT was left struggling on details of anti-terrorism policy in an interview last night.
The grilling on Sky News was the latest in a string of car-crash interviews for the Shadow Home Secretary.
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She was asked about the Lord Harris report on the capital's response to terrorism, commissioned by the London Mayor last year.
Sky host Dermot Murnaghan tried to ask her what she thought of the report - before asking her whether she had actually read it.
Pressed further on the specifics in one exchange, the host asked if she agreed with Lord Harris' recommendations on "physical resilience".
She replied: "Yes, I think physical resilience. Is important."
Asked about the specific point he was making, Ms Abbott said: "Well, I think physical importance is important."
When he told her of the policies - to amalgamate the police and to put up more barriers - she did not appear to have a response.
She replied: "Well. That is an interesting idea. I think you would find resistance in some parts of London...
"We're now putting up barriers on bridges. You'd think we might have done that before. Particularly after what happened on Westminster Bridge."
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Ms Abbott was then asked whether she thought she was an asset or a liability to Jeremy Corbyn's campaign.
She replied; "I think I am Shadow Home secretary. It would be very strange if I wasn’t doing interviews like this."
It was reported over the weekend that she had agreed not to appear on TV or radio again until after the election due to a series of broadcast blunders – including where she accidentally proposed paying police officers just £30 a year.