Doing A Natalie Bennett is never a wise move for a politician campaigning ahead of a general election, as shadow home secretary Diane Abbott discovered this morning.
In an interview on LBC reminiscent of the then Green party leader’s disastrous “brain fade” over the figures for building more houses on the same radio station in 2015, Abbott got herself in a spectacular tangle over Labour’s pledge to recruit more police officers.
When asked by presenter Nick Ferrari how much 10,000 new recruits would cost, Abbott said £30,000 – suggesting their annual salaries would be £30 a year.
She then revised the cost up to £80 million, then down to £64.3million, and revised the number of new recruits up to 25,000. Then up to 250,000. Then down to 250. Then up to 2,000. Then down to 250.
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Oh dear. Perhaps she should’ve taken an extra leaf out of Bennett’s book and developed a cold. It could’ve been the return of her Brexit Flu…