Labour's shadow city minister Richard Burgon was given the admittedly tough task of touring TV studios on Wednesday evening to explain away John McDonnell's u-turn on the fiscal charter.
And his appearance on Channel 4 News did not go too well. It led to someone editing his Wikipedia page to describe the encounter with Cathy Newman as "pisspoor".
During the interview, Newman pressed him: "You say you're not a deficit denier, so what is the deficit going to be this year?"
Burgon appeared unable or unwilling to answer. "Well... I'm not an economic... I'm not somebody that's going to put a figure in a crystal ball at the end of the year," he said.
Newman replied: "You don't need a crystal ball. It's in the government's figures, it's in the government's financial forecast."
Burgon said: "I think it will be higher than the government says it's going to be."
Newman also quizzed the City minister on when the last time he met someone from the finance sector in the City was.
He replied: "Well, we meet people all the time from the City. I met representatives from buisness only a couple of weeks ago in Brighton.
Newman asked: "When was the last time you went into a City firm?"
Burgon said: "Well, I was only appointed to this role a number of weeks ago. Parliament has been in recess. We had the conference season. At the conference season of course I had meetings of representatives of business."
Newman appeared unconvinced: "Have you fixed any meetings with people in the City to familiarise yourself with your patch?"
Burgon said, before the interview ended: "I've got a very busy diary as you can imagine. I will be meeting City representatives I will be interested to hear their views and their perspectives."
At someone point after the interview, the City minister had his Wikipedia entry updated to reflect how it went.
