backed Chief Secretary to the Treasury into a corner forcing him to admit Labour still have “more to do” in regards to the economy. He was talking to her to discuss the increase in inflation to 2.5%.
“You must have done a Snoopy dance this morning, when you saw the inflation figures,” she said to him referring to the gleeful dance performed by the cartoon dog when he is happy. However Mr. Jones had never heard he reference and seemed confused asking: “Can you show me [the dance]?”
“I mean, look, inflation coming down is good news for families across the country,” he said. “We know the is still a problem for lots of people.
“Target is 2% it’s come down at 2.5% this is obviously much more stable than we had a few years ago, where it was kind of peaking at 11% and driving everybody to worry about their and rent and energy bill.
“So it’s good news that inflation is coming down. Shows the Prime Minister’s plan for change is working in terms of stability across the economy, but we’ve still got more to do,” he said.
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Sky News Kay Burley challenged Darren Jones about the state of the economy (Image: Sky News)
Kay immediately challenged his response. “You certainly do!” she said. “The pound is plummeting, borrowing costs are soaring, inflation not really behaving how you would want it to. Why isn’t the budget working the way that you hoped it would?” she asked.
“Let’s unpack that a little bit. So inflation coming down is good. Tick. That’s great. It’s much better than it has been. And…as I say…
“You’ve got a long way to go,” Kay interrupted.
“You know, 1, 2, 3, points above what we wanted. That’s much better than when it was 11% as I said last year, for different reasons, but still partly because of the government. And we’re not in that situation now.
“And that’s good news in terms of borrowing costs, of the rate at which the government pays to borrow money internationally, that has gone up in the last few days, in the same way that has in many countries around the world.”
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Darren Jones defended the economy to Kay Burley on Sky News (Image: Sky News)
“Hence the word soaring,” Kay said. “Would we say soaring?” he questioned. “I mean it’s increased for sure, and that means the borrowing is a little bit more expensive.
“But that’s why the Chancellor’s fiscal rules are so important. The first [being] that we don’t borrow money for day to day spending in public services that has to be paid for by tax receipts…
“And where we do borrow money, it needs to be investment into the country’s infrastructure,” he said.
Kay Burley then informed Mr. Jones it had cost her a fortune against the dollar when she was away recently.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “No, you’re not,” she cut him off.