Rishi Sunak’s advice for tackling inflation has resurfaced, as people lament the new economic policy adopted by Liz Truss’ government last week.
Truss became prime minister on September 6, after beating her former colleague and previous chancellor Sunak in the Tory leadership contest.
However, less than three weeks, Truss’ newly appointment chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s so-called “mini-budget” caused the sterling to crash to a new low of $1.03. This is at a time when the UK economy is already looking precarious with high inflation and a recession around the corner.
While the pound bounced back a little to the value of around $1.08 on Tuesday, many people are already looking back at what could have been if Sunak had been voted in as Conservative leader instead.
One particular clip that’s taken off is from the summer leadership debate which aired on Channel 4 in July, where Sunak dubbed Truss’ economic plan a “fairy tale”.
He said: “The most pressing economic priority for the new prime minister and government is to grip inflation.
″We cannot make it worse, inflation is the enemy that makes everybody poorer, it erodes your savings, it erodes your living standards, it means those of you who have mortgages will see your interest rates go up higher and higher.
“So I don’t think the responsible thing to do right now is to launch into some unfunded spree of borrowing and more debt, that will just make inflation worse, it will make the problem longer.”
To put Sunak’s warnings into context, the Bank of England had not yet made its alarming prediction that there would be a recession stretching across five quarters around the corner, and that inflation could reach 13.3% this winter.
Back in the July debate, Truss replied: “Let’s be clear – we have inflation because of our monetary policy, because we haven’t been tough enough on the monetary supply, that’s the way I would address that issue.”
“Liz, we have to be honest – borrowing your way out of inflation isn’t a plan – it’s a fairy tale,” Sunak hit back.
That’s not the only moment of nostalgia that has hit Twitter this week either.
Picking up on the YouGov poll shared by The Times on Monday which showed Labour with its highest biggest ever, Tory MP Huw Merriman – who backed Sunak – said: “This poll suggests that the victor is losing our voters with policies we warned against.”
Others also pointed out how Sunak had directly told journalists: “If we are not the part of sound money, I don’t see what the point in the Conservative Party is.”
Articles which criticised Sunak for being too worried about the value of the sterling are resurfacing too...
And the sense of nostalgia is everywhere.