Conservative party conference has turned out to be a great opportunity – for Tory MPs and ministers alike to point the finger that is. Since Monday morning, the biggest blame game doing the rounds in Birmingham has been over who is responsible for Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s embarrassing climb-down to reverse the cut to the 45p income tax rate.
This morning Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has thrown another name into the mix: ’twas, in fact, the media what done it. Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News, he said: ‘You guys were constantly talking about the 45p tax rate which is why we had to take it away.’ Clearly surprised Kay fired back: ‘You think it was the media? It wasn’t because it was the wrong thing to do?’
Nothing to do with the plunging pound or backbench rumblings in the Tory party, eh James?
While Burley tried to clarify his answer with him, the Foreign Secretary ploughed on, listing all the things the media had stopped them talking about: ‘Cutting tax for working families, support for people trying to pay their energy bills…’. Oh dear.
Rowing back slightly after being prodded by Burley again, Cleverly said the 45p tax cut was a ‘distraction’ from their other policies. Nothing to do with the plunging pound or backbench rumblings in the Tory party, eh James?
It appears that Cleverly didn’t stop there with his truth bombs on the broadcast round this morning. Moving on to Times Radio, he next fired shots at his own cabinet colleagues Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt and Wales Secretary Robert Buckland.
Throwing shade at comments from both saying they thought that benefits payments should rise with inflation, Cleverly thundered: ‘It’s better and easier, more appropriate to feed your views and ideas in in the normal way, which is through cabinet, through cabinet committees.’
All quiet on the Tory Front then? Mr S has a hunch more squabbling is yet to come.
Comments