Kate Garraway laughs as she tears into Foreign Secretary James Cleverly over police figures

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Kate Garraway has been praised for ripping into Foreign Secretary James Cleverly over claims about the number of police officers.

The conservative politician appeared on Friday’s Good Morning Britain where he was interviewed by Garraway and Ben Shepherd, with the conversation quickly turning to police figures.

Following claims from a colleague that frontline officers had increased by 20% which had already been disputed by FullFact, independent fact checkers, Cleverly insisted there would be 22,000 more officers around the UK in just five years.

It led to Garraway calling the Secretary on his figures straight away, first admitting the hosts were ‘frankly a bit nervous challenging ministers on government figures because they can be played in different ways… but they also can be wrong.’

She said that GMB viewers, when a minister is on the show refusing to answer questions in a straightforward way, may be asking themselves: ‘Are we being spun a lie or not?’

To which Cleverly replied simply: ‘No, I’m not lying.’

Cleverly was challenged on GMB over police figures (Picture: Shutterstock)

There was then a fairly long, awkward silence, the hosts giving Cleverly a chance to expand – but when he failed to do so, Kate jumped in.

‘So you’re confident you’re going to hit the targets, that the [20%]figures are right even though they’ve been challenged, you’re confident there’ more police per head of population than ever before, even though that has been challenged?’

Cleverly then interrupted, complaining: ‘Hang on, Kate … you’re saying different things to what I’m saying.’

Garraway explained she was ‘challenging the way you presented the figures … there’s one argument that [the new officers] are just a replacement of the numbers that were cut.’

She also pointed out that the population has grown in that time.

The presenter ended up laughing as the conversation went round in circles (Picture: ITV)

‘You’re accusing me of saying things I never said,’ Cleverly insisted, with Kate then laughing as she said she was ‘just challenging you on the figures.’

‘Police numbers are increasing,’ he said, adding that in many forces ‘there are more police officers now than at any point in history.’

The exchange caused a reaction online, with commenters taking to Twitter, aka X, where one person said Garraway ‘woke up and chose violence today.’

‘Kate Garraway is on one today and I’m all for it,’ another said, while another praised her for ‘standing your ground.’

Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV

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