Nick Ferrari calls out Boris Johnson over Home Secretary's crime claims

9 December 2019, 09:01 | Updated: 9 December 2019, 09:10

Nick Ferrari told the Prime Minister that Home Secretary Priti Patel had made up figures about violent crime if Labour win - and Boris Johnson had no answer for it.

Ms Patel wrote an article in the Daily Telegraph today headlined "We will give police the support they need", in which she claims that there would be a "violent crime wave" if Labour get in.

She claimed that there would be 52 more murders per year, 150 more sexual assaults and 8,596 more weapons on the streets.

And when Nick asked where she got the figures, Mr Johnson admitted he didn't know.

He responded: "Well, I think the answer is very simply that to tackle crime, you need not just supporting the police by putting more police on the street, which is what we're doing..."

But Nick asked him the question again: "Specifically, in the Daily Telegraph, she wrote 8,596 more offensive weapons, 882 more firearms, 150 more sexual assaults, 52 more murders. Where did she get those numbers from?"

The PM admitted: "I'm sorry, you must forgive me, I haven't been able to tell you."

So Nick told him: "She's made them up Prime Minister, hasn't she?

"These figures are Project Fear. There's nothing to back up these figures and you've let them out on your watch from your Home Secretary.

"Unless she's Mystic Priti, this makes no sense at all."

Mr Johnson insisted: "She's making a point about crime figures and the need to have robust policing and I back that idea all the way.

"My experience is that if you give the police the money and support that they need and the numbers that they need, then you'll get crime down."