Dear oh dear. Mr S offers his condolences to anyone who tuned into Defence Secretary John Healey’s car crash interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari this morning. The Labour man stumbled his way through a rather excruciating conversation, in which Ferrari took him to task over his defence plan’s figures.

Starting on submarines, the LBC host quizzed Healey on whether the UK government’s defence plans were cast-iron commitments or merely aspirations: ‘You talk about the nuclear submarines and to develop ‘up to’ 12. What does ‘up to’ mean? That could mean one.’

JH: These are… long-term decisions first of all.

NF: How many is it, Secretary of State? I could lose up to 30 pounds of weight – but I might lose six ounces. This is the reality. So what does ‘up to’ mean?

The Defence Secretary launch

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