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BBC’sLaura Kuenssberg said it was a “bit rich” for the Conservatives to criticise Labour over their economic woes this morning.
The pound has dropped in value and government borrowing costs have sky-rocketed over the last week.
While Labour has insisted financial stability will return, the Tories have been quick to condemn Labour over it.
Co-chair of the Tory Party Nigel Huddleston said this morning that chancellor Rachel Reeves is “making Britain weaker and more vulnerable because of her poor decisions”.
However, on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC presenter pointed out that the Tories found themselves in their own economic mess two years ago, when Liz Truss unveiled her £45bn of unfunded tax cuts in her mini-Budget.
Speaking to shadow chancellor Mel Stride, Kuenssberg said: “You’ve spent this week claiming the government’s responsible for damaging the economy.
“That’s a bit rich coming from the party that had Liz Truss in charge when the markets blew up and the UK’s credibility disappeared, isn’t it?”
Stride claimed that when the current government came into power, the UK had the fastest growth in the G7, near record levels of employment and and that inflation had been brought down from a 40-year high of 11.1%.
But Kuenssberg asked: “Isn’t it actually just blatant opportunism to be trying to get this narrative going suggesting that the government is responsible for an enormous market wobble and turmoil when Liz Truss had that effect on the market with Kwasi Kwarteng a couple of years ago?”
Stride said that the mini-budget is not why “business confidence is falling through the floor” at the moment, but the “actions of the government” at the moment.
But Kuenssberg pointed out that this is “not an issue that is confined to the UK”, with countries such as Germany have also seen their cost of borrowing go up.
“Aren’t you misleading people by trying to suggest this is all about the UK government’s decisions?” the presenter said.
Stride said: “We have the highest borrowing costs now – in 27 years at the 30 year bond rate – in the last 16 years. And what you have to look at now is the spread with other countries. We are an outlier.”
He said it is “much much worse here” than in our competitor countries.
Stride faced similar questions over on Sky News this morning, as presenter Trevor Phillips suggested international markets might be reassured if the Tories “acknowledged that mistakes were made”.
Stride said that he condemned the mini-Budget when he was on the Treasury select committee at the time, but “my party – not always but almost exclusively – been the party of fiscal responsibility.”
“That is the DNA of Conservatives. We believe in sound money,” he said.
Phillips just replied: “I know that being shadow chancellor does not necessarily mean being able to say you’re sorry.”
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