AYB’s confidence in English as a frontman for National may already have taken a knock as the second half of the dynamic duo has successfully managed his own John Key moment within hours of taking over the reins.
When asked on NewstalkZB today whether National would borrow money to pay for tax cuts English managed this:
We’ve always said we have a credible programme of tax cuts which we phase in to match macroeconomic conditions. Ah, we’ve always said, we aren’t that worried about, um, whether the Crown needs to borrow a bit of money.
Got that? National will borrow money to pay for tax cuts. I don’t think I need to spell out the problems with this plan.
And it seems English’s spindoctors really didn’t want it spelled out. Within minutes of English finishing the interview they were claiming he was talking about “infrastructure” not tax cuts and franticly pleading with Newztalk political editor Barry Soper to drop the interview.
I’ve gotta say, there’s a pattern starting to form here. As I recall APN has a pretty big stake in Newztalk’s parent company, The Radio Network, perhaps someone could make another call to the CEO and get a “correction”.
Update: Sources close to English say he meant Australian tax cuts.
Update to the update: and that he was joking.
Update to the updated update: or that he never said it.
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