Corbyn apologises for failing to put a figure on free childcare policy
The Labour leader has put the creation of a “national education service” at the heart of his party’s election campaign.
Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for repeatedly failing to provide the cost of Labour’s key childcare policy during an interview to promote it and condemned a backlash from supporters against the line of questioning.
The Labour leader dismissed suggestions he was treated unfairly on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, when he paused several times when repeatedly asked to give a cost for the pledge to roll out free care to all two to four year-olds, before asking: “Can we come back to that in a moment?”
Mr Corbyn also condemned the abuse of presenter Emma Barnett online, some of which was apparently anti-Semitic, and costed the policy at £4.8 billion by the end of the next parliament, scheduled to end in 2022.
Answering questions on the interview after launching Labour’s race and faith manifesto in Watford, Mr Corbyn said: “I didn’t have the exact figure in front of me, so I was unable to answer that question, for which obviously I apologise.
“But I don’t apologise for what’s in the manifesto and I will explain exactly what the cost is.
“It’s £4.8 billion it will cost by the end of the Parliament and it means that one million children will get childcare, free childcare 30 hours per week between the years of two and four.”
The figure differed from a costing given in a webchat on Mumsnet of £5.3 billion because that included an additional £500 million to reopen Sure Start centres.
Mr Corbyn also dismissed suggestions made by some of his supporters online that he had been treated unfairly in the interview.
“There isn’t such a thing as being unfair to politicians – if you put yourself up for elected office in public life you are subject to permanent scrutiny,” he said.
“I never get upset by these things, never be so high and mighty that you can’t listen to everybody else and make sure that you understand the motives of the majority of our people and the kind of society that we want to live in.”
Mr Corbyn defended journalists after Barnett said she was subjected to abuse online, some of which appeared to be anti-Semitic, with several Twitter users calling her a “Zionist”.
“It is totally and absolutely completely unacceptable for anyone to throw abuse at anyone else,” the Labour leader said.
“Journalists do ask difficult questions and journalists do do a job that does require asking difficult questions sometimes in difficult circumstances.
“If you don’t like what a reporter says or asks me, or anybody else, understand the question they’re asking, we will all do our best to answer those questions, but under no circumstances whatsoever should anyone throw personal abuse at anyone else because they are doing the job that they have been employed to do and I will not tolerate it under any circumstances.”
