Rishi Sunak: “I’m here to tell you that I am totally, 100% on it. And it is going to be OK and we are going to get through this and that is the most important thing I wanted to let you know today.” 

Foreign secretary James Cleverly mocked by BBC as he struggles to explain PM’s prices plan

Adam Forrest www.independent.co.uk

Floundering foreign secretary James Cleverly was left red faced in a bruising BBC interview when he was put on the spot over the inflation crisis.

Challenged six times to say how Rishi Sunak planned to cut price rises, Mr Cleverly stumbled in his replies – and was at one point greeted with laughter by BBC Radio 4 interviewer Amol Rajan.

Eventually Mr Rajan ended the interview abruptly, silencing Mr Cleverly and saying: “We’re going to the weather.”

Their painful exchange in full

Amol Rajan: ‘What is the PM’s plan to halve inflation?’

James Cleverly: ‘By making sure the economy is more productive economy, through, er, training, through um, er, er, you know, apprenticeships…’

AR: ‘That won’t bring inflation down. What is the PM planning to do about it?’

JC: ‘You have to deal with things in the short, medium and long term.’

AR: ‘Yes, so what is the PM’s plan?’

JC: ‘As I, er, say, er, the, er, point is, with things like, erm, driving down the implications of, er, you know, fuel and food.’

AR: ‘Sorry … what is the PM’s short-term plan?’

JC: ‘Well, one of the things we, er, one of the main vehicles for short term, er, addressing inflation is interest rates…’

AR: ‘The PM doesn’t control that so what is his plan, what is he going to do?’

JC: ‘Not all the levers of control are in the government’s hands…’

AR heard laughing in the background

JC: ‘… the choice was made to have an independent Bank of England.’

AR (sarcastically): ‘I really appreciate the economics lesson about the decision to make the Bank of England independent in the 1990s … What is the PM doing to get inflation down?’

JC: ‘One of the reasons we have been thoughtful and cautious on public sector pay awards is that we knew it’s one of those things that brings inflationary pressures … that is in stark comparison to the Labour party.’

At this point a clearly exasperated AR tries to end the the interview.

JC: ‘We have over many, many decades got used to large-scale, relatively low-skilled inflation [sic] – that has had a drag effect on productivity…’

AR: ‘We have to go to the weather.’