BBC presenter John Kay mocked James Cleverly this morning after a wave of heavyweight publications backed Labour to win the election.
The Sunday Times, The Economist and the Financial Times all encouraged their readers to kick out the Tories on Thursday.
The endorsements were another massive blow for Rishi Sunak as the election campaign draws to a close.
On BBC Breakfast today, Kay told Cleverly: “The Sunday Times - a Rupert Murdoch paper - endorsed Labour over the weekend for the first time since 2005, so too have the Financial Times and The Economist.
“The Sunday Times said that ‘Rishi Sunak has cut and embattled, almost cursed figure. The Conservative Party has lurched through a series of self-inflicted mishaps, the Conservatives have in effect forfeited the right to govern’.
“That is damning, isn’t it?”
Cleverly said he didn’t agree “so I don’t know why you’ve asked me”.
Kay replied: “I’m asking you because in our culture it’s a significant moment, isn’t it, when a big newspaper that’s read by hundreds of thousands of people comes out a declares who it thinks should be the government. And they don’t like you any more.”
The home secretary said: “Let me explain by I disagree with it. We have got inflation down to 2%, we have maintained low levels of unemployment, wages are growing faster than prices for many, many months. We have ensured that the UK economy is growing faster than any other country in the G7. GDP is growing, GDP per capita is growing.”
He also said the government had helped people through Covid and the energy price spike caused by the war in Ukraine.
But Kay told him: “These papers know all that and they’ve looked through all the numbers and they don’t think you’re the right party to run the country any more.”