James Cleverly's top gaffes from this morning's media round

It’s been another tough week for the Tories, and James Cleverly was the latest MP to face challenging questions on the morning media round on Thursday.

The Foreign Secretary followed Therese Coffee and Jacob Rees-Mogg in appearing on Sky News, LBC and Radio 4.

The biggest talking point was the fallout from the disastrous mini-budget. It came after reports in The Times that the Prime Minister has been told by advisers to abandon key elements of the budget, as well as raising Corporation Tax.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Cleverly said that the government needed to do things that would “bring certainty to the markets”.

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“I think changing the leadership would be a disastrously bad idea politically and also economically. We are absolutely going to stay focused on growing the economy,” he said.

Here are the biggest gaffes from Cleverly’s morning media rounds.

When he tried to blame the effects of the mini-budget on Labour

It’s always someone else’s fault… Cleverly’s most bizarre comment during the media round came when he attempted to blame the fallout from the mini-budget on Labour.

The Foreign Secretary claimed that it was the fault of the party’s “negative narrative” on Sky News.

When he refused to rule out another U-turn

Cleverly refused to rule out another embarrassing government U-turn, this time on Corporation Tax, when asked if Kwasi Kwarteng would go ahead with his previously planned rise in this business levy from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in April.

Speaking on Sky News, he said: “The Chancellor will come to the Despatch Box. It’s absolutely right that we have made it clear that we want to invest in businesses.

“It’s absolutely right that we help them stay competitive, we help them stay afloat, we help them to compete internationally, employ people and pay better wages.

“That’s why the package that the Chancellor put forward is pro-growth and is the right answer.”

When he claimed Truss is doing ‘exactly what she said she was going to do’

Cleverly was called out by LBC’s Nick Ferrari after defending the PM, with Ferrari saying: ‘I don't recall her saying she was going to tank the economy.’

He then asked: "Are we living in the same country?”

When he was reminded about the Bank of England’s intervention

An awkward moment came during his Sky News interview when Cleverly was reminded about the Bank of England’s intervention to “save our economy”.

It comes after the Bank of England has stepped in with further emergency action for the second day running to head off a “fire sale” of UK government bonds amid ongoing turmoil in markets triggered by the Chancellor’s mini-budget.

The central bank warned that the sell-off in the UK government bond market poses a “material risk to UK financial stability”.

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