Grant Shapps embroiled in LBC Nick Ferrari fury as he fumbles new Tory stamp duty pledge
The Defence Secretary was forced to apologise after giving the wrong figure live on air this morning.
Grant Shapps fumbles the numbers on stamp duty
Grant Shapps has become the latest victim of LBC’s Nick Ferrari’s demands for politicians to be on top of their briefs. Speaking this morning, the Defence Secretary received a mauling after forgetting the Tories’ new Stamp Duty pledge for first time buyers.
Mr Shapps initially told listeners that, if Rishi Sunak is the next Prime Minister, stamp duty will be permanently abolished on homes up to £450,000.
However Mr Ferrari informed him that the new manifesto pledge is in fact priced at £425,000.
An embarrassed Mr Shapps held his hands up and said: “If you’ve got a number in front of you, you’re probably right because I was saying it off the top of my head."
A bemused Mr Ferrari replied: “So you’re the Secretary of State for defence sent out today and you don’t know get the number right…”
A bemused Mr Ferrari replied: “So you’re the Secretary of State for defence sent out today and you don’t know get the number right…”
Mr Shapps then doubled down with his error when referring to his own cheat sheet of facts and figures, only to get the figure wrong by an even larger amount a second time.
He instead said the new stamp duty threshold is “£425 million”, out by a factor of one thousand.
Mr Ferrari cut him off: “I think it’s £425,000, secretary of state, not million!”
The veteran LBC presenter is proving the most formidable interviewer of this election, having secured a string of similar toe-curling moments with politicians from all parties over the past days.
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On Friday, Mr Shapps’ colleague, Minister for Children David Johnston, was forced to admit he didn’t know how much the national child allowance is.
On Monday, Labour’s shadow schools minister Catherine McKinnell was unveiling Labour’s new free school breakfasts policy, but was shown up as not knowing how many breakfasts the Government would have to provide.
Yesterday a senior LibDem was asked six times whether her party would take Britain back into the European Union, failing to answer the simple charge every time.
