Following claims on Marr by the Chancellor that “there are no unemployed people”, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said it showed the Conservative government was hopelessly out of touch with huge numbers of people in Britain today.

Vince Cable said:

“As Chancellor, Philip Hammond needs to be on top of the numbers, and as he should know very well, there are actually 1.425m people unemployed. Worse, a large number of them are second or third generation out of work, suggesting that all that a large number of people are inheriting in Britain today is poverty.

“It underlines just how out of touch the Conservatives are with millions of Britons who are living on the breadline.

“Philip Hammond is right that we should embrace automation, but we should also be mindful that it can also put people out of work in the short term. This underlines why we need greater investment in infrastructure, training and education to help a large number of people who miss out even when the economy is growing far more strongly than it is today.”