Philip Hammond claimed that there are no unemployed people in Britain and is now getting destroyed

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond made a bold claim on The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday morning.

The Conservative MP was speaking on the BBC One show ahead of his Budget next week.

When discussing Britain's role in the ever advancing technological world and the fear that machines could soon replace many people's job, Hammond made an incredibly inaccurate comment.

We have to ensure that our people have the skills and the capability and the tools they need to be able to evolve, to learn new skills, to take up new careers.

I remember 20 years ago we were worrying about what was going to happen to the million shorthand typists in Britain as the personal computer took over.

"Well nobody has a shorthand typists these days, but where are all these unemployed people? There are no unemployed people.

No unemployed people in the UK? In 2017?

Hmmm....

Via: Giphy

Just in case you don't believe us, here is a video of him saying it.

Considering that Hammond is the government minister in charge of the economy at present, it is quite worrying that he would get his facts so dramatically wrong.

According to the National Office of Statistics, between June and September there were 1.42 million unemployed people in the UK.

There is a large probability that Hammond simply misspoke - but this hasn't stopped people tearing the Chancellor to shreds on Twitter.

His opposite number for Labour weighed in.

Journalists also had their say.

Then everyone else came through.

Hammond did later correct himself but the damage had already been done.

HT BuzzFeed

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