BBC presenter Nick Robinson accused a cabinet minister of being “in denial” after she tried to paint a rosy picture of the UK economy.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, insisted there were positive signs amid the gloomy news about soaring government borrowing costs, rising inflation, slugging growth and the falling value of the pound.
On Radio 4′s Today programme, Robinson told her: “Consumer confidence is down, business confidence is down and growth is down and inflation is going up.”
But Nandy said: “We inherited an economy where it was hard to see who had confidence, both to invest and particularly for consumers to feel that they could spend, given the huge fluctuations that we’d seen, particularly after the Liz Truss/Kwasi Kwarteng Budget.
“The chancellor has been absolutely clear that we are not going back to those bad old days. We’ve had two interest rate cuts since she became chancellor and we have worked very hard to restore economic credibility.
“Only a few months after we took office we were able to welcome investors from all over the world, who announced £63 billion-worth of investment in the UK economy. That is a huge vote of confidence, and we’re not only confident that we are on track, but the OECD is confident that we are on track to become the fastest growing economy in Europe.”
Robinson hit back: “There’s a danger, isn’t there, that you sound in denial. We can’t find an economist who would come on this programme to say that you will not either have to put taxes up, cut spending or break your borrowing rules.
“There isn’t an economist on the planet who believes you’ve got an alternative to doing one of those things, and yet you come on the programme and say it’s all going swimmingly.”
Nandy replied: “I’m not for a moment saying it’s all going swimmingly because my measure of success is whether people feel better off. I think there isn’t a single person in this country who said they felt better off after 14 years of Tory government, and our intention is that in the next few years people will start to feel significantly better off in their own lives and for the prospects for their children.”