EMQs: Who’s to blame for the state of the economy?

Political Currency

Persephonica

Business, Economy, George Osborne, Westminster, Politics, News, Money, Ed Balls

4 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A whole host of Treasury buffs have sent in their questions this week in wake of the Spring Statement, for Ed Balls and George Osborne to answer. Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt asks whether in the light of Labour’s announcing civil service reductions and welfare reform, the government is “stealing our clothes”?

Lord Macpherson, Permanent Secretary to no less than three Chancellors, praises Rachel Reeves’ “courageous” claim of non-negotiability on her fiscal rules (which George translates as a euphemism for ‘bonkers’).

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride is predictably critical of the Chancellor’s choices, but how much is Rachel Reeves to blame for the situation she finds herself in?

And Ruth Curtice, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation and another former Treasury civil servant, sparks a conversation about how living standards will ultimately dictate Labour’s electoral chances.

Plus, Ed and George also clash over Keir Starmer’s use of “coalition of the willing” - is this a conscious attempt to provoke American sentiment, or simply a widely used buzzphrase?

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Producers: Miriam Hall and Jarek Żaba

Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford

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Transcript

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