‘You Sound In Denial’: Nick Robinson Savages Cabinet Minister Over State Of The Economy

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.”

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Nick Robinson ‘Disappointed And Frustrated’ After Liz Truss Cancels Interview

Liz Truss has been accused of “avoiding scrutiny” after she pulled out of an interview with Nick Robinson the day before it was due to be broadcast.

Today programme presenter Robinson said he was “disappointed and frustrated” after Truss claimed she no longer had time to be grilled by him.

The half-hour interview had been due to be broadcast at 7pm tomorrow night.

Robinson interviewed Truss’s rival, Rishi Sunak, earlier in the campaign.

Announcing the cancellation, the BBC said: “Ms Truss’ team say she can no longer spare the time to appear on “Our Next Prime Minister”.

“The other candidate for the Conservative leadership, Rishi Sunak, was interviewed by Nick on 10th August.

“We regret that it has not been possible to do an in depth interview with both candidates despite having reached agreement to do so.”

Reacting on Twitter, former BBC political editor Robinson said: “Was pleased to secure an in-depth interview with Liz Truss on BBC1. I am disappointed & frustrated it’s been cancelled.”

Truss’s campaign team did not respond to requests for comment.

A source close to Sunak told HuffPost UK: “It’s important that candidates face proper scrutiny so that members and the public know what they are offering.

“Avoiding that scrutiny suggests either Truss doesn’t have a plan at all or the plan she has falls far short of the challenges we face this winter.”

Unlike Sunak, Truss has already turned down the chance to be interviewed by feared interrogator Andrew Neil on Channel 4.

Sunak’s campaign said their man had done nine one-to-one broadcast interviews during the leadership campaign, compared to Truss’s two.

Labour’s Conor McGinn said: “The British public don’t get a say in choosing the next Tory Prime Minister and now it seems Liz Truss wants to avoid any public scrutiny whatsoever.

“People will rightly conclude that she doesn’t want to answer questions about her plans for the country because she simply hasn’t got any serious answers to the big challenges facing our country.”

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