Jeremy Hunt

that we were borrowing nearly £1 in every four that the state was spending.

So a doctor on £100,000 that we were paying in the NHS, the state was borrowing £25,000 to fund that salary.

And it's completely and totally unsustainable.

And so, you know, Alistair Darling's plans that he was pencilling in had Labour won were not that different to George Osborne's plans.

Of course, Ed Miliband as Labour leader played up that difference because, you know, that's the age-old Tory-Labour argument.

But they weren't that different because we had to do something about that horrific deficit.

Look, there are lots of other things that we didn't do.

I fully accept that.

I'm not trying to make the case for...

the defence in a big way.

But I think Brexit paralysed politics because it was such a huge thing, whatever the rights and wrongs, it was such a huge thing for the political system to absorb.

I mean, I remember in Theresa May's government, it was really, really hard.

When Theresa May was trying to get her Brexit deal through, it was very, very hard.

And then straight after Brexit, we had the pandemic.

And these are not excuses, but...

I think they were... What they meant was it was just very, very difficult when so many huge things were happening externally.

But now I think we have got to get back to this.

And whatever happens in British politics this year...

Let me say something less contentious, which is one of the chapters in this book.

If Andy Burnham becomes prime minister later this year.