Labour minister in GB News car crash as he refuses to answer simple question 7 times

Labour minister James Murray was left squirming on GB News as he was grilled over the party's spending over the last year by presenter Camilla Tominey. The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury refused to answer a simple question from Camilla, who wanted him to clarify that both public taxes and spending had increased under the current government.

Speaking on air, Murray said: "All the Labour party want above all else is stability. They want as much certainty as possible and that is why fixing the public's finances was so important for us to do." Unimpressed Tominey replied: "But you haven't fixed the public's finances have you, because government spending is going to reach a record level by the end of this Parliament, so in what world have you fixed government spending? You're spending £100billion more." Murray replied: "When we came into office, the Chancellor set her fiscal rules and they are non-negotiable, so we had to made some fiscal decisions," as Camilla cut in: "But you borrowed more."

Murray tried to continue, saying: "The fiscal rules..." but Camilla interrupted: "You've borrowed more and you've taxed more, it's just a simple answer to those questions. Have you borrowed more?"

As the pair spoke over each other, Murray continued to avoid the question as he said: "Let me just explain about borrowing because this is a really important point which is the two fiscal rules the Chancellor has, which stability, so day to day spending has to be paid for through tax receipts, so not through borrowing.

"You can invest though, and that is what is really important to get our economy going and if you saw during the budget and spending review, the Chancellor put extra investment in transport."

Camilla responded: "I know, but extra investment is one way of spinning extra borrowing and spending. Are you borrowing less or more in this parliament, yes or no, James Murray?"

A squirming Murray stuttered as he said: "There is a difference between..." as Camilla said: "Yes you are. Okay. And is the tax burden going up, yes or no?"

Murray conceded: "Well we had to take some difficult decisions. The GB News presenter, getting frustrated, replied: "So the answer to that is yes. So taxes and spending is up."

The minister replied: "The reason why we had to make some difficult decisions over taxes was to fix the public finances," to which Camilla retorted: "Okay but I just want to establish so that we're not rewriting history here, is that taxes and spending are up under Labour isn't it?"

Murray repeated: "You know that we had to take those decisions," as Camilla bluntly said: "Yes, so it's a yes. Can you just say yes, taxes and spending is up under Labour, yes it is Camilla."

The interview came to an awkward end as Murray said once again: "We had to increase taxes at the budget," as Camilla gave up and said: "Okay I am taking that as a yes," before bringing the interview to an end.