Rachel Maclean will be wincing for weeks. The Home Office minister’s broadcast round this morning was the stuff of nightmares – for speaker and listeners alike. But the ensuing row caught light because of the failure of her political bosses.
Maclean suggested that Brits struggling with rising bills should just take on more hours. Or find a better job. Simple, when you put it like that. And of course no help for those already in difficulty, or those fearing they may soon be drawn into crisis.
Maclean’s few defenders claimed that her words had been taken out of context. Maclean, they pointed out, had conceded to Sky’s Kay Burley: “it may be right for some people, they may be able to access additional hours, but, of course, it is not going to work for people who are already in three jobs”.
Whether or not the context makes her quotes better – and I’m not sure they really make her sound less tin-eared – her words weren’t Rachel Maclean’s great mistake. That was taking a position in Boris Johnson’s government.
This is an administration that is responding to the cost of living crisis by engaging in brinkmanship with the EU, spoiling for a fight with civil servants, and letting its MPs get into losing battles with anti-poverty campaigners.
It is an administration that is shaky on big questions. The Chancellor and Prime Minister cannot seem to agree on whether to cut spending or increase it. On fundamental questions like that, there is uncertainty. And with huge energy bills, and a further big spike to come in autumn, that uncertainty will only provoke more fury.
It has yet to offer anything serious on the cost of living. People are very worried. No wonder a floundering minister attracts such derision and fury – because the sense of drift is unmistakeable. The Conservatives are nowhere on this and the public have cottoned on.
Until Boris Johnson and his ministers get a grip, or even try to, incidents like Rachel Maclean’s blow-up this morning will continue to wound their government. Whether they think they get misquoted or not is immaterial.
The real losers in this row, though, are not Boris Johnson – whose ability to wriggle out political scrapes remains undiminished – nor Rachel Maclean, but the many people of this country who can sense they being offered confused musings instead of clear policy.
