[Denver]

Emily Thornberry was forced to scramble for her notes during a live TV grilling on Labour's tax plans as she became the latest front bencher embarrassed over numbers.

The shadow foreign secretary was unable to answer specific questions on Labour's tax plans just hours after Jeremy Corbyn unveiled his manifesto.

Ms Thornberry was flustered by Kay Burley's questions on Sky News and dived out of shot to lay her hands on the notes.

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.'

During yesterday's interview, Burley warned Ms Thornberry that economists did not think the plans would raise anything like that much money - leaving a huge black hole in Labour's plans.

But Ms Thornberry insisted: '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.'

Fumbling over numbers has dominated Labour's campaign for the general election.

Burley warned Ms Thornberry that economists did not think the plans would raise anything like that much money - leaving a huge black hole in Labour's plans

She said: 'Well, if we recruit the 10,000 police men and women over a four-year period, we believe it will be about £300,000.'

Ferrari replied: '£300,000 for 10,000 police officers? How much are you paying them?'

Ms Abbott replied: 'No, I mean, sorry, they will cost, it will cost about, about £80 million.'

'About £80 million? How do you get to that figure?' he said.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell was unable to tell yesterday's Today programme what the deficit was without looking it up.

Rustling could be heard over the radio as he scrambled for an answer and he was accused of searching Google after coming up with a figure that was wrong but which matched Wikipedia.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ble-notes.html

[Denver]

The whole party clearly has no idea what they are doing

[reece(:]

Queen of being human, we shouldn't be expected to remember every single figure going

[Alf]

I heard they were making Diane Abbot shadow chancellor, so she can move in to No14.

[Greg!]

Originally Posted by reece(:

Queen of being human, we shouldn't be expected to remember every single figure going

[UserSince2005]

lol messy party.

more messy than a babys nappy

more **** also.

[Denver]

Originally Posted by reece(:

Queen of being human, we shouldn't be expected to remember every single figure going

You can if its part of your parties manifesto

[Northern Monkey]

It's a sorry state of affairs.Just hope they can get their **** together.This team is doing the party no favours at all.

[Jack_]

What about Philip Hammond missing the cost of HS2 by a margin of £20billion, when asked about it on this morning's Today Programme? Where's the incessant mocking? The outrage? The endless news reports? No? Nobody?

****ing pathetic

[Jack_]

Or what about Theresa May's false claim in a joint press conference earlier, that the pound was falling before the referendum result? A mistake? An outright lie? No? Nobody?

The simple fact of the matter is that politicians of all persuasions are human beings, not robots, and cannot at all times be expected to retain every bit of information they have ever been given. But of course, nobody cares about this when it's the Tories doing it. That 'invisibility cloak' strikes again. This country is laughable

[Denver]

Mother Theresa would never mumble her words and be forced to scramble through papers

[Black Dagger]

Originally Posted by Adam.

The whole party clearly has no idea what they are doing

And Theresa does apart from killing foxes and ensuring further poverty?

[Black Dagger]

Originally Posted by Adam.

Mother Theresa would never mumble her words and be forced to scramble through papers

She's only learned to say strong and stable and discuss shoes. That's why.

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Jack_

What about Philip Hammond missing the cost of HS2 by a margin of £20billion, when asked about it on this morning's Today Programme? Where's the incessant mocking? The outrage? The endless news reports? No? Nobody?

****ing pathetic

I think the problem is that Labour need to be on point with this stuff more than anybody.Their leader doesn't have the confidence of the people and their persona is that they're no good with money so every gaff they make is under the microscope.
The Tories are so far ahead that it doesn't even matter what they do so it's not getting reported as widely.For them it's just a mistake.For Labour it's being 'useless on the economy'.
Labour need to be fighting as hard as they can and this crap isn't instilling confidence.

[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Adam.

Mother Theresa would never mumble her words and be forced to scramble through papers

No, but she would tell a bare faced lie that you'll conveniently ignore because it hasn't been picked up on by the Daily Mail

Besides, Emily Thornberry isn't the leader of the opposition. And Philip Hammond is the chancellor

[AnnieK]

All of the parties have been in a bit of a shambles to be fair. This election has been sprung on the opposition so I guess its all been a bit of a rush job to get the manifestos together. They can be easily forgiven for not remembering every figure but should possibly ensure they are prepared better. Its not a normal business meeting being quizzed on national TV by people who are desperate for you to slip up so they have the next headline.

Wish people would concentrate on the issues and policies in the manifestos rather than people making the odd mistake when quoting them

[Denver]

Originally Posted by Black Dagger

And Theresa does apart from killing foxes and ensuring further poverty?

Labour will insure poverty when they aim to borrow 10s of billions with no plans on how to pay it back

[Tom4784]

Oh, the Daily Mail. Nothing to see here.

[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

I think the problem is that Labour need to be on point with this stuff more than anybody.Their leader doesn't have the confidence of the people and their persona is that they're no good with money so every gaff they make is under the microscope.
The Tories are so far ahead that it doesn't even matter what they do so it's not getting reported as widely.For them it's just a mistake.For Labour it's being 'useless on the economy'.
Labour need to be fighting as hard as they can and this crap isn't instilling confidence.

I don't disagree, and certainly these incidents aren't going to help the campaign which is irritating - but like I said politicians are human, and are perfectly capable of not remembering every figure they have ever learned when put on the spot. This applies both ways, my issue is with the media jumping down the throat of the Labour shadow cabinet and it being rolling news for 24 hours - and everyone else jumping on the bandwagon - whilst the Tories barely get more than three articles, and nobody gives a ****. As I said the other day, it seems to me that they can literally do and say anything they like, and people will either make excuses for them or ignore it because "strong and stable", "coalition of chaos", "weak leader", etc etc.

I did like the fact that at the manifesto launch, Jeremy pointed out that the Tories have borrowed more than any Labour government in history, and thus they don't need lecturing on economic competence. The Miliband campaign allowed themselves to be defined by Cameron and co as economically weak (like that stupid ****ing note from Liam Byrne that if anyone actually bothered to research, is a customary jovial note left for the successor). I hope they absolutely hammer this point home throughout the campaign because barely anybody knows this and instead just swallows the Tory propaganda. Can you tell I hate the electorate?

[Kizzy]

Is this what serious debates is now, a new thread for every tiny fumble of papers and yet people are dropping like flies due to this callous govt?.... :/

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by reece(:

Queen of being human, we shouldn't be expected to remember every single figure going

Totally right.

With figures,it is always the case that you cannot have the dead right figure to hand all the time.
All politicians get into difficulties as to that.

[the truth]

Originally Posted by Jack_

What about Philip Hammond missing the cost of HS2 by a margin of £20billion, when asked about it on this morning's Today Programme? Where's the incessant mocking? The outrage? The endless news reports? No? Nobody?

****ing pathetic

hmmm interesting point ill check for that

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Jack_

I don't disagree, and certainly these incidents aren't going to help the campaign which is irritating - but like I said politicians are human, and are perfectly capable of not remembering every figure they have ever learned when put on the spot. This applies both ways, my issue is with the media jumping down the throat of the Labour shadow cabinet and it being rolling news for 24 hours - and everyone else jumping on the bandwagon - whilst the Tories barely get more than three articles, and nobody gives a ****. As I said the other day, it seems to me that they can literally do and say anything they like, and people will either make excuses for them or ignore it because "strong and stable", "coalition of chaos", "weak leader", etc etc.

I did like the fact that at the manifesto launch, Jeremy pointed out that the Tories have borrowed more than any Labour government in history, and thus they don't need lecturing on economic competence. The Miliband campaign allowed themselves to be defined by Cameron and co as economically weak (like that stupid ****ing note from Liam Byrne that if anyone actually bothered to research, is a customary jovial note left for the successor). I hope they absolutely hammer this point home throughout the campaign because barely anybody knows this and instead just swallows the Tory propaganda. Can you tell I hate the electorate?

Yeah they are only human.I would probably make many mistakes in their shoes.However they are politicians in opposition on an election run up and the press are like a dog with a bone for them.I think they need to practice being polished on the figures.

I didn't know that about the note.I thought that was legit.It is strange how most people don't know about that.

[Amy Jade]

Big deal, I don't get why people are so angry about Diane Abbott either, mistakes happen.

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Adam.

The whole party clearly has no idea what they are doing

Originally Posted by UserSince2005

lol messy party.

more messy than a babys nappy

more **** also.

Originally Posted by Adam.

Mother Theresa would never mumble her words and be forced to scramble through papers

Wow this section of the forum really misses LT.