Gillian Keegan clashed with a Sky News presenter this morning after she appeared to suggest he didn’t “understand economics”.
The education secretary went head-to-head with Matt Barbet over whether or not Liz Truss was to blame for the spike in inflation.
He pointed out to her that “there’s been a massive jump in inflation under your watch”.
But Keegan hit back: “Well you can thank Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine for that.”
“A lot of people thank Liz Truss for that, don’t they?” Barbet replied.
Keegan told him: “Well that’s not true. If you look all over the world, Liz Truss was nothing to do with other countries where the inflation rate went up in exactly the same way.
“You have to be honest and you have to understand economics as well. The energy spike which caused a huge spike in inflation which is now - probably a year ahead of schedule - down to 2%. I think that’s a lot to do with the restraint that we’ve shown in terms of spending.”
A stunned Barbet replied: “Well if you understood economics you’d know that it’s actually got a lot to do with the Bank of England, which is independent of the government, and the way they manage interest rates. That’s the real reason why inflation has come down, if you’re economically literate.”
Keegan said: “Well actually what they do is they look at the economics. Theirs is a decision point, but what they do is they look at all the economic factors and all the prices.”