Oh dear. As Budget day looms, there is growing concern among the Conservatives that Philip Hammond may be about to do something stupid. However, few expected him to step into disaster before Wednesday.
In an interview on the Andrew Marr show this morning, the Chancellor created a pre-Budget row as he bungled his way through the exchange – dropping a series of clangers.
First off, Hammond managed to turn one of his party’s top achievements into a toxic issue. Asked about unemployment – which is at a 42-year low – Hammond claimed that ‘there are no unemployed people’:
"There are no unemployed people" claims @PhilipHammondUK. #marr pic.twitter.com/YrtvcRtCNG
— The Andrew Marr Show (@MarrShow) November 19, 2017
‘Where are these unemployed people? There are no unemployed people.’
Mr S suspects that he 1.42 million unemployed people in Britain take a different view.
Next up, Hammond appeared to suggest he at best had a shaky grasp of the national debt by claiming that UK debt was ‘about to decline’.
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