The Conservative Party's chairman has advised Britons hit by the cost of living crisis to find a job with higher wages or cut back on their outgoings.
Jake Berry's comments were made on Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme as he was questioned about the controversial economic strategy being laid out by new Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. The remarks will remind some of similar comments made decades earlier by then employment secretary Norman Tebbit at the Conservative Party conference in 1981 when he urged people looking for work to "get on your bike" to find it.
“People know when they get their bills, they can either cut their consumption or get higher salaries or higher wages, and go out there and get that new job,” Mr Berry said. “That’s the approach the government is taking in trying to create growth."
The comments sparked ire from some quarters such as Christina McAnea, the general secretary of the UK's largest trade union Unison, who said the Government was "living on another planet". She said: “If more key workers take the government’s advice, there’ll soon be no one left to run our hospitals, schools and care homes,” The Independent reported.
Mr Berry insisted that the Prime Minister has an “absolute mandate” to implement her policy of tax cuts benefiting the wealthy, which is intended to create growth in the economy. He said the mandate came from the Tory party's 2019 general election win.
Speaking about the party's manifesto in that general election, he said it "set out that we wouldn’t increase taxes and in fact we have complied with that by reversing the national insurance rise". He continued: It set out that we would drive to create economic growth and that’s exactly what the prime minister’s doing."
He also rubbished claims that Mr Kwarteng talked his plans over with hedge fund managers at a champagne do held after the mini-Budget, saying those in attendance at the event should be "lauded". Mr Berry added that he was present at the event and said it was for Conservative Party donors and "Britain's leading entrepreneurs".
When quizzed about what the chancellor had said, Mr Berry replied: "“I certainly didn’t hear him make those comments. I was there so I listened to what he said and what he talked about was his plan for growth.”
He went on: “I can categorically rule out that in terms of the address he made to the group of people who were there as part of this normal Treasurer’s event. He did not give any insight into future plans and I’m sure in terms of his private conversations he didn’t give any.”
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