Foreign secretary James Cleverly tells colleagues removing the prime minister would be a ‘disastrously bad idea’
Here are some more lines from James Cleverly’s morning interview round.
Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said removing Liz Truss as prime minister would be a “disastrously bad idea” and only worsen market turmoil.
The PM deserves support to push through her economic growth plan, he said:
We have got to recognise that we do need to bring certainty to the markets. I think that changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea, not just politically but also economically.
He acknowledged that recent turmoil in the financial markets was linked to the mini-budget, but argued “many of the challenges we are facing are challenges shared by countries around the world”.
He defended the decision by the chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, to scrap the planned rise in corporation tax in his controversial mini-budget:
I think that it is absolutely right that we want to invest in businesses. It is absolutely right that we help them stay competitive, we help them stay afloat. We have got to make sure we can compete internationally with the other places businesses can choose to locate. We have got to make sure we are tax-competitive.
He declined to rule out further U-turns but insisted the government should “absolutely” stick with Kwarteng’s budget:
Ultimately, what that mini-budget was about was protecting tens of millions of people from unaffordable energy prices. That was the bulk of that proposal. It was about making sure that taxes for 30 million people were reduced a little bit and those are really strong principles. I think we should absolutely stick with those.
He said the planned statement by the chancellor on 31 October will set out a more “holistic” view of the government’s plans, but the “foundations” of the mini-budget were “really key for the growth agenda the prime minister has put forward”.
There are always areas of public expenditure where we can make sure that the growth doesn’t outmatch the growth in economy.
Defence is going to grow to 3% of GDP. That is above inflation growth. That is committed to. There are other areas where we are going to have to keep it much closer to inflationary growth, but the Prime Minister said we are not going to be cutting public services.
That is what she said she would do. That is what she is doing. The fact that that seems to have taken some people by surprise is not her fault. We are going to stick with the plan. The plan is to grow the economy.
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