There is a long history of politicians coming unstuck during interviews with my LBC colleague Nick Ferrari, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a car-crash quite like this.

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The Defence Secretary John Healey’s performance this morning - in which he was unable to confirm the number of active UK warships - was so shambolic it raises serious questions about this government’s competence. If we really are on the brink of World War 3, then god help us.

Asked by Nick how many frigates we have, John Healey paused and spluttered before hesitantly offering the answer “17 frigates and destroyers” - which isn’t even close. LBC has contacted the Ministry of Defence for the exact figure, but experts say the UK has “two type 45 destroyers available and probably three type 23 frigates”. That means our Defence Secretary is operating under the illusion we have more than three times as many warships available as we actually do.

It didn’t get much better from there. Next month, Britain was due to play a........

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