Tories will create more than 18 million jobs, David Cameron claims in TV gaffe

Cameron says a Conservative government would create 10,000 jobs a day by 2020. What he meant to say was a daily rate of 1,000.

David Cameron has watched Frozen so often with his four year old daughter that he “can virtually recite it”

David Cameron has been caught out getting his figures wrong again today after claiming a Conservative government would create 10,000 jobs a day over the next five years.

This would lead to a staggering 18 million jobs being created – 10 times as many needed to employ the 1.86 million currently unemployed.

He made the gaffe during an interview on Sky News this morning. What he meant to say was 1,000 jobs a day – a rate the government claims to have created since 2010.

A record 31 million people are currently in work but if Mr Cameron’s dodgy maths got their way then all but five million of Britain’s adults, pensioners and children would be working – an increase of 60 per cent in the employment level.

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “There is little value in bandying around numbers which suggest that either party would increase taxes by an average of £3,000 for each working household.”

In an interview with presenter Eamonn Holmes this morning, Mr Cameron said: "We've pledged today two million jobs in the next parliament, because we are going to continue at the rate of creating 10,000 jobs a day."

David Cameron at an election rally yesterday (AP) (AFP)

He also gave an interview to the Daily Mail in which he claimed that Britain under the Conservatives would have the highest employment rate in the developed world and a job “for everyone who wants one” by 2020.

Outlining one of his most audacious targets for another term as Prime Minister, Mr Cameron said his party would help business to create a further two million jobs– taking it ahead of Germany and Japan and bringing it close to what he described as “ effective full employment”.

“I see no reason why we can’t get to a level which is higher [than now] … that we’d see as full employment,” he said in an interview with the Daily Mail. “The way I’d define it is a job for everyone that wants one.”

Unemployment currently stands at 1.86 million (Getty Images)

He said it would be achieved by working through the Government's plan for full employment set out in January, including backing business, keeping jobs taxes low, cutting red tape, and investing in infrastructure.

The Conservatives said the latest Treasury estimates showed Britain was on course to overtake Canada on the road to full employment, with the employment rate set to reach 72.6 per cent in the second quarter of this year.

The Independent has got together with May2015.com to produce a poll of polls that produces the most up-to-date data in as close to real time as possible.

Click the buttons below to explore how the main parties' fortunes have changed:

All data, polls and graphics are courtesy of May2015.com. Click through for daily analysis, in-depth features and all the data you need. (All historical data used is provided by UK Polling Report)