Budget day has been and gone and this morning Rachel Reeves was expected on the media morning round to discuss the fallout from her fiscal statement. Only it appears that the Chancellor seems to think she has better things to do than speak to the usual selection of broadcasters about her tax-raising Budget the morning after. It transpires that, at the very last moment, Reeves pulled out of a scheduled interview with Times Radio this morning – before pulling the same stunt an hour later with GB News. So much for transparency…
While the Chancellor isn’t keen to reiterate her own Budget – a rather flimsy excuse, Mr S thinks – the GB News presenters were rather unimpressed, not least given Reeves chose to appear on other broadcasters like Sky News. ‘[Rachel Reeves] has now decided she doesn’t have time to talk to us,’ fumed GB News’s Stephen Dixon, ‘which means she doesn’t have time to talk to you.’ The presenter was pulling no punches in his take down of the Chancellor, raging:
This is very disappointing, professionally, in a sense, but it’s actually, frankly – can I say? – I think it’s disgraceful. It’s disgraceful to think they don’t want to take questions from us.
Don’t hold back! Going on, Dixon added:
We don’t know what our viewing figures are today, by the way, because you don’t find out for 24 hours. A week ago, our viewing figures were three times Sky News’s figures.
Oo er. It’s a rather large miscalculation by the former Bank of England economist, eh?
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