Hunt has been taken to task by the Health Select Committee today, who accused him of massaging the figures in his bizarre claim that £10 billion has been made in NHS investment.

The usual suspects are looking fairly sheepish when asked about @DHgovuk accounting tricks to 'balance' NHS books@CommonsHealth 18/10/16 — Dr Ben White (@ProtocoIDriven) October 18, 2016

Hunt admitted that the government’s £10bn figure includes the year prior to this spending review as well the spending review period.

Jeremy Hunt claimed to have given the NHS £10bn. It's actually £4.5bn.

He claimed that this was over 5 years. He's now admitted it's over 6. — Justin Madders MP (@justinmadders) October 18, 2016

By the end of session, Hunt had completely abandoned the £10 billion figure, clutching at painfully fluffy phrases:

Jeremy Hunt drops claim that NHS has been given billions it needed for 5-year plan…now admits it was only "what it needed to get going" — Rob Merrick (@Rob_Merrick) October 18, 2016

.@Jeremy_Hunt now reluctant to use £10bn figure in front of Health Select Cmte, refers to securing a "bigger budget" in 2015 Spending Review — Shaun Dunbabin (@ShaunDun) October 18, 2016

Went from fumbling to floundering to farce pretty fast there, Hunt.