A Tory minister was left struggling for words this morning after being shut down by Kay Burley in a tense interview.
Mel Stride was appearing on her Sky News programme this morning to discuss the latest inflation figures when he was quickly corrected by the veteran broadcaster. After admitting that the tax burden had gone up under the Conservatives and praising Liz Truss’s “aspiration” to get taxes down during her disaster stint in Number 10, Mr Stride tried to deflect the conversation by recommending what questions Kay should ask Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves later in the show.
He said: “I’ll tell you, the one thing to ask Rachel Reeves is -“, before Kay Burley quickly replied: “I’ll do the questions, thanks very much.”
He then backed down, and said: “Okay, fair enough”. Earlier in the interview, the secretary of state for work and pensions had tried to claim that the Government could take credit for UK inflation figures dropping to the Bank of England target of 2%. Mel Stride said: “Inflation is now down to 2%, which is the Bank of England target, down from over 11% last autumn. Along with growth and rising real wages it means that we can deliver on cutting taxes, which is what this party stands for in this election.”
But this was questioned by Ms Burley, who pointed out that the Tories had blamed global factors, such as Covid aftershocks and the war in Ukraine, when inflation was at its highest last year. Kay replied: “Inflation’s got nothing to do with the Government has it? That’s what you always tell us.” But Mr Stride said “no it is”, going on to claim that the Government had helped the economy by not “giving in” to “above inflationary pay demands” in the public sector, which he said would have been the “easy option”. The Sky News breakfast presenter seemed unimpressed, adding: “When it was at 11%, you guys were queuing up to tell me it was nothing to do with you lot.”
Social media users seized on the embarrassing moment for the Tory minister, as one person on X wrote: “Kay Burley snatched the jam out of his donut”. Another said: “This is precisely the reason you can’t trust a Tory grifter! Only taking credit when it’s positive news but no accountability when it’s negative news!”
Mel Stride is currently fighting to keep his Central Devon seat, which the Conservatives won in 2019 with a majority of 17,300. Recent projections have shown however that he is now vulnerable to losing to Labour, alongside fellow cabinet stars Jeremy Hunt, Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps.
Although inflation finally fell to the Bank of England’s target of 2% in the 12 months to May, it is not likely to affect its decision on its base interest rate tomorrow, according to experts. Most economists believe the Bank of England will hold rates at 5.25% and will opt for their first cut in three years in August instead.