Nick Robinson Blasts James Cleverly Over Economic Chaos: 'You Needed To Listen, Not Us'

The foreign secretary had previously accused Liz Truss' critics of not listening to what she planned to do.
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Nick Robinson and James Cleverly went head-to-head on Radio Four
Press Association

James Cleverly was today accused of dismissing the warnings of leading economic experts as the UK headed for financial meltdown.

The foreign secretary previously accused Liz Truss’s opponents of not “listening properly” to what she planned to do when running to be Tory leader.

But appearing on Radio 4′s Today programme this morning, presenter Nick Robinson said given the economic chaos which has ensued, it was Cleverly who should have been taking on board the views of others instead.

In a series of embarrassing U-turns, Truss has been forced to ditch almost all of the tax cuts she said were needed to grow the economy and sack her chancellor.

Cleverly was played a recording of what he had told the Today programme just two weeks ago.

In it, he said: “The prime minister made it really clear what her philosophy was when she was running for the leadership. If people weren’t listening properly, I think that’s more their problem than hers.”

Robinson told him: “It was their problem if they weren’t listening, Mr Cleverly, is what you told me. Would you like to say something different now?”

Cleverly replied: “You know me well. You know I think carefully about what I say. The point I made was we need to have a growth strategy. Liz set that out.”

But Robinson hit back: “You said it was other people’s problem if they weren’t listening, and I put it to you it was your problem and the prime minister’s problem that you didn’t listen to the Office for Budget Responsibility, you didn’t listen to the Bank of England, you didn’t listen to the former chancellor, Rishi Sunak, you virtually didn’t listen to every economist in Britain who told you this is what would happen.

“You needed to listen, not us.”

Cleverly insisted other countries were experiencing the same economic problems as the UK, but added: “I am not suggesting, and the prime minister is not suggesting, that everything she did was right, but she recognised when she made a mistake and she set about repairing the things we got wrong.”

 

Cleverly endured a tough morning as he was sent out onto the airwaves to defend the embattled prime minister.

Earlier, Sky’s Kay Burley had asked him “what is the point of Liz Truss” after she was forced to ditch her entire economic strategy.

She added: “This isn’t a U-turn, this is a 10 car pile-up in the fog.”