James Cleverly was put on the spot on Monday morning over his role in Liz Truss’s government and the economic chaos it triggered.
The foreign secretary, one of the few ministers who kept his job after Rishi Sunak took over No.10 and reshuffled the cabinet, was seen as a close ally to Truss when she implemented the disastrous mini-budget.
Most of the £45 billion unfunded tax cuts have been reversed now. The UK is expecting a hike in taxes and a slash in public spending instead, as the new government seek to establish “credibility” lost during Truss’s upheaval.
On BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, host Mishal Husain asked Cleverly: “Did you have doubts about it at the time?”
“Well, as foreign secretary at the time, I was not directly involved in negotiations, planning, as you know.” he replied.
He said the contents of the budget announcements “were held very very tightly” so as not to spook the markets.
Husain pushed: “Yeah, but you knew about it when it came out and you came on here, and you described it as ‘incredibly well thought through’, and that in the government you were in, you were going to stick with it.
“Were you thinking something different behind the scenes?”
Husain was referring to then-chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s recent claim that he urged Truss to slow down behind the scenes with her economic reforms.
“Call me old-fashioned, I tend to say what I think,” the foreign secretary replied: “And what I wanted to see was economic growth stimulated in the UK economy – but I’m also grown up enough to know that the market response to that announcement meant that changes had to be made.”
He said stability had returned to the country’s financial landscape since Kwarteng was fired and Jeremy Hunt took control of the Treasury.
But, as Husain pointed out: “It’s important for public confidence and trust that when something goes wrong in government, those who are part of it at the time, bound by collective responsibility, take a share of responsibility for what they were part of.”
“Well, yes,” Cleverly replied. “And we now have a new prime minister, we have a new chancellor – I’m not sure what your implication is on that.”
“You were there at the time. Are you happy to accept that therefore you bear a share of responsibility for what happened?”
“So of course, everyone in government bears a share of responsibility.”
Husain asked again: “Did you see a problem with it at the time?”
“As I said, you can listen back to the tape of the interviews I gave at the time, but I’m also grown up enough to know that when the international bond yields and the money markets tell us they are unhappy with the decision that the government has made, they change that decision.
“That’s what happened, the prime minister at the time changed chancellor, the chancellor changed direction.”
He said “reassurance” had come back to the market since Sunak took over.
“Throughout this, it is very important that we continue to stay focused on protecting the most vulnerable economically in the UK, making sure we help those who were, and are, really worried about how they’re going to pay their bills whilst also ensuring we have the plan to get the economy back on track in the medium term.”
The economy shrank by 0.2% last quarter. If the economy shrinks next quarter too, the country will officially be in a recession.