ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

Jeremy Corbyn is the latest Labour figure to struggle with the costings of their manifesto in a live interview.

The Labour leader could not remember how much his party’s plan to introduce free childcare for 1.3 million children would cost.

Emma Barnett, interviewing Mr Corbyn on Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, asked him three times how the party would pay for the policy.

He tried to look up the figures on his iPad and repeatedly asked if he could come back to the figure "in a moment".

Here is how the interview unfolded:

Emma Barnett: How much will it cost to provide unmeans-tested childcare for 1.3 million children?

Jeremy Corbyn: “It will cost…erm…it will obviously cost a lot to do so, we accept that.

EB: I presume you have the figures?

JC: “Yes I do. It does cost a lot to do. The point I’m trying to make is we’re making it universal so that we’re in a position to make sure every child gets it and those that can at the moment get free places will continue to get them and those who that have to pay won’t and we will collect the money through taxation. Mainly through corporate taxation.

EB: How much will it cost?

JC: I’ll give you the figure in a moment.

EB: You don’t know it?

JC: Erm?

EB: You’re logging into your iPad there…

JC: Can I give you the exact figure in a moment?

EB: Is this not the issue with the Labour Party which came up under Gordon Brown, that we cannot trust you with our money?

JC: Not at all. All of our manifesto is fully costed and examined…and…

EB: You’re holding your manifesto, you’re flicking through it, you’ve got an iPad there, you’ve had a phone call while we’re in here and you don’t know how much it’s going to cost?

JC: Can we come back to that in a moment?

EB: What, when you’ve looked it up?! My point is it’s quite troubling, this is a policy you’re launching today Mr Corbyn and you don’t know how much it’s going to cost. It hardly inspires the voters.

JC: I think what is important for voters to understand is that if we don’t invest in our children, and we don’t invest in them for the future then they do less well in primary, secondary and in the future.

EB: But you don’t know the cost?

JC: (Sigh)… I want to give you an accurate figure.

EB: Why on earth are you giving free childcare to people who can afford it? If it’s unmeans tested, you don’t have the figure. Hopefully someone is emailing it to you.

JC: The important thing is that all children get a chance to grow up together. At the moment we have a system which separates out, in the sense that a child of wealthy parents may well be able to go to a paid-for pre-school and nursery facility. Others will not get that chance because parents can’t afford it. Or if they’re poorer will get a free place…

EB: But this is a very expensive policy Mr Corbyn. I’m going to help you out with the figures. I’ve got them…would you like to hear how much it’s going to cost?

JC: What we think is that it’s more important to invest for the whole community and collect the money back through taxation on the principle of universalism.

EB: So it’s all coming from taxation?

JC: And the same applies with the National Health Service and applies through mainstream education…

EB: It’s a staggering cost. Would you like to know how much your policy is going to cost Mr Corbyn?

JC: What is your estimate of it?

EB: “It’s £2.7 billion, and then £4.8 billion plus that, with half a billion to reverse the cuts to the Sure Start scheme. Does that sound about right?

JC: It does sound correct. And the importance of restoring Sure Start is that this Conservative Government has actually cut a lot of Sure Start centres, and closed a lot of them down which has damaged the chances of a lot of children .

EB: We’ve now got to be in a situation, haven’t we Mr Corbyn, where we trust you with our money and you didn’t know those figures there.

And the next nine days are about convincing people you’re up to the job. The biggest job in the land. Apart from your questionable links with the IRA and Hamas which people have been over

JC: Well if…

EB: Sorry if I could just finish. You’ve never held a ministerial role, a shadow cabinet role, or even chaired a select committee and before politics you never ran a big organisation.

And if I may remind the listeners Harry Fletcher who was a former key adviser of yours who left your campaign recently said you struggled to cope with the demands of front-line politics.

Your office is ruled by chaos. There’s no diary. There’s tens of thousands of unopened emails. Your team is overwhelmed and they’re frightened to make decisions…

JC: By the way Harry Fletcher was never an adviser…he was briefly a volunteer in my campaign.

EB: But the point is, he worked in your inner sanctum. I didn’t expect you not to know how much your policy was going to cost.

JC: We have a manifesto here which is about challenging the direction in which this country has gone in that we’ve now had seven years of continuous cuts in public expenditure which has hit local Government the hardest, but also obviously health and education aswell.