Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and journalist Amol Rajan clashed on the Today programme when the senior politician said the presenter’s comments were not “worthy of the BBC”.
The duo engaged in a robust exchange on BBC Radio 4 about the budget Mr Hunt unveiled on Wednesday.
Rajan said: “This might be, and you’ll say you don’t want it to be, one of your last big acts in politics. Do you really think you’ve read the moment?
“This is a country ravaged by economic shocks, at best drifting, at worse, stagnant. We all know about its potential, but we’ve had seven quarters of falling GDP per head, that’s been revised downwards.
“We’re hooked on foreign labour, the birth rate is collapsing. Many public services are creaking, councils are going bust.
“Those are facts, has your budget really come even close to meeting the scale of the challenges this country faces?”
"It's never decided this far in advance... We know it's going to be challenging to live within a tight spending envelope."
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) March 7, 2024
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt defends a lack of detail of his public spending plans in the Budget yesterday.#R4Today
Mr Hunt said he believed it had, adding: “I think the overall characterisation that you’ve just given of the British economy is unworthy of the BBC.”
Rajan scoffed and as the pair then continued to talk over each other, he could be heard saying: “The BBC is an organisation of tens of thousands of people doing lots of different things, there is no such thing as ‘the BBC’ and I’m putting to you facts about this country.”
Mr Hunt responded: “It’s unworthy of you Amol.”
The pair had already had a disagreement earlier in the show while discussing productivity savings, when Mr Hunt accused Rajan of saying something that “isn’t true”.
