On 2 May 2017, the shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, committed a memorable political gaffe after she struggled to explain the costings of Labour’s flagship policy to recruit 10,000 new police officers. In what was widely described as a “car-crash” radio interview during the general election campaign, Abbott gave a series of contradictory figures for the plan.

Speaking on LBC Radio, Abbott was repeatedly pressed by presenter Nick Ferrari on how much the policy would cost and how it would be funded. She initially stated the cost would be £300,000, which worked out at £30 an officer, before repeatedly correcting herself while shuffling through the pages of her briefing notes.

Abbott added: “No, I mean, sorry… they will cost, it will cost about, about £80 million.”

It was pointed out that this total would mean a police officer’s annual salary would be £8,000.

Abbott then appeared to deliver the correct response, saying: “In year one, we are getting ready to recruit, but in year two the cost will be £64.3 million. In year three, the cost will be £139.1 million. Year four, the cost will be £217 million, and year five, the cost will be £298 million and that can be amply covered by reversing the cuts in capital gains tax.”

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Labour planned to reverse cuts to the higher rate of capital gains tax (CGT) from 28% to 20% and the basic rate from 18% to 10% announced in the 2016 budget. These changes would have meant £2.7 billion to spend on more police officers.

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Abbott’s interview immediately overshadowed the policy announcement and dominated the day’s political news coverage. The Conservative party seized on the exchange, citing it as evidence that the Labour Party was not competent to manage the economy or the nation’s security.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, said: “Diane Abbott has laid bare the chaos that Britain would face if [Labour leader] Jeremy Corbyn is voted into Downing Street.

“One of Corbyn’s closest allies has clearly shown that Labour’s sums don’t add up, they would weaken our defences, and their nonsensical promises aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.”

Corbyn defended his close ally.

The Labour leader said he was “not embarrassed in the slightest” by Abbott’s comments, adding: “We have corrected the figure and it will be absolutely clear now, today and in the manifesto.”

Abbott later attributed her poor performance to the series of seven interviews she had conducted that morning. “I did seven interviews that morning and that was the seventh, and I misspoke”, she stated.

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On 7 June, the Labour Party announced that Abbott would step down as shadow home secretary due to ill health. A party statement read: “Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, has asked Lyn Brown to stand in for Diane Abbott as shadow home secretary for the period of her ill health.”

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The 2017 general election resulted in a hung parliament, a shock outcome that saw the Conservative party lose its parliamentary majority and prime minister Theresa May’s authority severely diminished. May calculated that an election would see her majority increase, thus strengthening her hand in the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. But the Conservative Party’s hyper-personal, quasi-presidential campaign was widely seen as disastrous. It began with a clear emphasis on the slogan “strong and stable”, but was marred by missteps – including a major U-turn on social care policy (dubbed the “dementia tax”).

The result left the Conservatives as the largest party with 317 seats, a net loss of 13 and nine short of the 326 required for an overall majority. Labour made a net gain of 30 seats to finish on 262.

To remain in power, May entered into negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

Some days after the general election, Abbott revealed she had Type 2 diabetes and said the condition had forced her to take a break from frontline politics.

Reflecting on her LBC interview, Abbott told the Guardian she was badly affected after six successive interviews without eating enough food. “During the election campaign, everything went crazy – and the diabetes was out of control, the blood sugar was out of control”, she said.

She also referred to the reaction of her brother: “He said ‘that is not Diane’, because ever since I’ve been a child I’ve had a great memory for figures, and he said he knew it was my blood sugar and gave me a lecture about eating and having glucose tablets.”

Abbott also condemned the fact she had been “singled out” by the Conservative campaign.

“It felt terrible, it felt awful – you felt you were in a kind of vortex – as I became aware of what was happening – the Facebook ads, the Tories name-dropping me for no reason”, she commented.

Despite the media attention, the apparently relentless mockery and the torrent of abuse the gaffe attracted, Labour significantly outperformed expectations at the 2017 general election. Abbott returned to frontline politics as shadow home secretary on 18 June and continued to hold the role until April 2020, when she returned to the backbenches upon Keir Starmer’s election as Labour leader.