Robert Peston

Of course, it's not a trivial event.

But I literally said to him, look, when you were elected...

In July of 2024, we'd had 15 years of living standards stagnating, right?

Brexit, many people would say, had not worked.

We'd had the worst energy shock, well, certainly for half a century with Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

And we knew that defence spending was utterly inadequate because of, you know...

Putin's imperialism and the threat that he was posing to Europe.

You know, in the run up to the general election, when you were elected, you had all the information you needed that so-called incrementalism was inappropriate.

You had to have, you know, massive ambition to...

essentially give people both physical security and economic security.

And as you and I have talked many times, that was all about having a compelling growth plan, right?

And you didn't do any of it.

And you actually, many of the things you did undermine growth.

Much of what you did was incoherent because even though any individual policy might make sense,

It just didn't make... No, on the whole.

When you put them all together, what did it add up to in terms of the direction of Britain?

It was too confusing.

Why has it only now dawned on you?

And by the way, what in your speech are you saying that can make us believe that you have now got an ambitious plan?

To which the answer is...