'The markets aren't woke': Tory MP Alicia Kearns criticises Government's messaging on disastrous mini budget

13 October 2022, 20:13

Tory MP Alicia Kearns has taken aim at the Government's messaging over the mini-budget, which unleashed market turmoil and crashed the pound.

Speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, Kearns appeared to oppose the high levels of borrowing to fund the Government's tax cuts, and took aim at Number 10 messaging.

Asked by Marr what she thought about the extraordinary events happening at Cabinet level, she said: "I think it's a really difficult one, because we all want the Government to succeed, and I don't think that's unique to Conservatives at the moment around the country.

"Everyone is scared, and in a time of crisis when people are nervous, they want to see pragmatism, and they want to see fiscal responsibility, and that is my concern."

Marr asked MP, who was among the 2019 intake, whether she'd like to see the unfunded tax cuts reversed.

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Kearns said: "Look, do I think we should be borrowing en masse, where our children have to pay this back for decades to come? No I don't."

She added that though sometimes extraordinary steps had to be taken in difficult times, the manner with which the Government's delivered its fiscal approach was the issue.

She said: "The markets aren't woke, the markets are not Left, in the fact that they aren't Lefty, anti-government.

"The fact that they have been spooked is something that should be taken incredibly seriously.

She said Governments govern with the support of the people, "and we are not bringing them with us currently".