Liz Truss was left almost speechless after being confronted with a shocking failed Tory election promise.
The BBC's Andrew Neil asked the trade secretary about a pledge in 2015 to build 200,000 starter homes in five years.
Mr Neil asked: "You say you have a plan. You had a plan in 2014 to build 200,000 new starter homes.
"That was five years ago. How many did you build?"
Trying to avoid giving a direct answer Ms Truss replied: "There haven't been as many starter homes as we would have liked."Cutting her off Mr Neil pressed: "How many did you build?"
The trade secretary said she didn't know the exact number.
Mr Neil: "It's easy to remember it's zero . None, under that plan. 200,000... zero in five years."
The commitment was made in the party's 2015 election manifesto, which said they would be sold exclusively to first-time buyers under the age of 40, in a bid to help young people take their first step on the property ladder.
Labour have today pledged to build 150,000 affordable homes a year as part of the 'manifesto of hope'.
The Tory promise was backed up by £2.3 billion being made available to support the delivery of the first 60,000 homes in that year's Spending Review.
But four years on, the National Audit Office (NAO) said that, to date, no starter homes have actually been built.
Successive Tory housing ministers have claimed work was set to commence on the first starter homes. And none of their claims have proven to be true.
Funding which had been earmarked for the scheme has instead been spent on acquiring and preparing brownfield sites for housing more generally - some of which was "affordable" housing.
Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, the MHCLG and its agencies spent £174 million preparing land originally intended for starter homes.
The chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier, said earlier this month: "Despite setting aside over £2 billion to build 60,000 new starter homes, none were built."
She added: "Since 2010 many housing programmes announced with much fanfare have fallen away, with money then recycled into the next announcement.
"The department needs to focus on delivery and not raise, and then dash, people's expectations."
