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Theresa May made a joke about Diane Abbott's maths. She forgot her Chancellor got his sums wrong by 20 billion

Theresa May made a joke about Diane Abbott's maths. She forgot her Chancellor got his sums wrong by 20 billion

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn appeared on the BBC this week to face audience questions in the run up the snap general election on 8 June.

During a conversation on renegotiating our relationship with the EU after Brexit, Mrs May pointed out that these talks will be taking place 11 days after the general election.

Perhaps hoping to prove that she has the 'strong and stable hand' for these talks, May asked the audience where Britain would be if a coalition went to Brussels to discuss our future.

We have a situation at the moment where if Jeremy Corbyn was to get into Number 10, he'd be being propped up by the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Nationalists. You'd have Diane Abbott who can't add up, sitting around the cabinet table, John McDonnell who's a Marxist, Nicola Sturgeon who wants to break our country up and Tim Farron who wants to take us back into the EU - the direct opposite of what the people wanted.

This garnered applause and further questions on EU questions on funding and divorce fees.

However, a few question later, one audience member said to Mrs May:

I'd just like to pull you up on the comment about Diane Abbott's miscalculations, that you made a few minutes ago. Because, Phillip Hammond, who's the Chancellor of the Exchequer, got a 20 billion miscalculation a few weeks ago - so I think that's a bit rude of you.

Mrs May responded.

Well what I will say is this: I said earlier on, Diane Abbott wants to be Home Secretary, and she wants to wipe the records of criminals and terrorists from the DNA database. That would mean we would catch fewer criminals and fewer terrorists.

Not the most subtle of parries.

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