Kay Burley accused a Cabinet minister of being a “dour Scotsman” as Keir Starmer prepares to tell the country that there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
The Sky News presenter challenged Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, ahead of the prime minister’s speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
The Labour MP, who is from Glasgow, told her: “The point that the prime minister will be making today … is that we have inherited a tough financial situation, but if we can stabilise that, then the prospects for the country are really good.”
Burley replied: “I wonder why a dour Scotsman is the right person to deliver that message.”
The minister said: “Well they thought if you wanted sunshine and optimism, I was the perfect person to deliver it and that’s why I’ve been asked to come and talk to you this morning, Kay, and I’m always delighted to do that.”
Later in the interview, Burley asked McFadden if the government will have to raise taxes or cut spending to fill the £22 billion “black hole” Labour claims it was left by the Tories.
McFadden said: “I don’t write the Budget, the Chancellor has the difficult of job of doing that. She set out some of her approach in a fantastic speech yesterday and she made the same point that the prime minister will make today.
“We’ve got to stabilise those public finances, and when we do that, that’s the platform for growing the economy, for investing in the country in the future.
“So there’s a Budget coming in about a month’s time, she’ll set it all out when she does that.
“On Budget day we’ll know exactly where we stand, and it’ll be a good platform for the future of the country.”
Burley told him: “I’m sure she lets her little ray of sunshine look at her homework, but there we go.”
In his speech later today, Starmer will warn voters that there is more pain to come – but pledge that it will be worth it to “build a new Britain”.
He will say: “The truth is that if we take tough long-term decisions now … then that light at the end of this tunnel, that Britain that belongs to you, we get there much more quickly.”