Boris Johnson appeared on Good Morning Britain for the first time in almost five years this morning (May 3) and as well as being late to the interview and talking about his recent address to the Ukrainian Parliament, he had a jaw-dropping answer to a pensioner who sent in a question to the show about the cost of living crisis.
Presenter Susanna Reid, who admitted that she had more than 100 questions from viewers, challenged the PM that he and the government was not doing everything it could to challenge the crisis and the host said the show had heard from viewer, Elsie, who rides buses all day to avoid putting the heating on at home and only eats one meal a day, because her bills have risen so much.
To which the Prime Minister replied: "“Just to remind you that the 24 hour freedom bus pass was something that I introduced." To which Susanna quipped: “Marvellous, so Elsie should be grateful to you for her bus pass!"
Susanna asked if Boris is in touch with what the public is feeling and he said: “We’re doing everything we can to help with the pressure on family budgets and I totally understand and get what people are going through.
“It is important though to set the global context… This is all being driven by the costs of the input, mainly fuel and that has been exacerbated by what’s going on in Ukraine.”
Susanna challenged that the PM isn’t actually doing all he can, citing that he hasn’t imposed a windfall tax and that the council tax rebate will not make a dent in the public’s bills.
The PM agreed: “I accept that those contributions from the taxpayers aren't going to be enough immediately to help cover everybody’s costs… There is more that we can do, but the crucial thing is to make sure that we deal with the prices over the medium and long term.”
The Prime Minister was then asked if he knew how much the Carer’s Allowance went up in April, and he admitted: “I don’t know, but I can imagine it wasn’t enough to cope with the cost.”
Continuing on the cost of living, Susanna asked why benefits are not going up in line with inflation and the PM said: “It could get worse. That knocks onto interest rates and that knocks onto the cost of borrowing for everybody.
“And I’m sorry to say this, but we have to be prudent in our approach. We have to help people like Elsie and the families you mentioned, in the short term with huge sums of taxpayers' cash, through the local councils or through the schemes we’re doing… but the best answer is to have a strong economy where we keep interest rates as strong as reasonable and we ensure we get people into high wage, high skills jobs…”
The final subject was Partygate, where Susanna accused Boris of breaking the law and lying to Parliament. He stated: “You know what I’m going to say on this Susanna and I’ve apologised for the things we got wrong during the pandemic and I repeat those apologies, but with great respect I’m going to have to ask you to wait until the conclusion of the investigation.”
