Mental arithmetic is not everyone's cup of tea and in an embarrassing stumble, MP Kevin Brennan has proven it is not his strong point.

Addressing the House of Commons about the failing standards of maths and English, the Shadow Minister for Schools said: "Standards rose under Labour because we focussed on numeracy and literacy.

"Only three in ten pupils, three in ten, that's 60 per cent, because I know that the Secretary of State's not very good at maths."

The MP for Cardiff West soon realised his mistake and tried to recover by saying to the opposition: "I was just testing their numeracy, it is of course 30 per cent."