Wes Streeting

We got it wrong, got an absolute kick in from the voters, and we put it right.

So say that.

Child poverty.

You've now got the bizarre spectacle of the Prime Minister saying that lifting half a million children out of poverty is one of his proudest achievements, when the Prime Minister was one of the biggest blockers on it in opposition and in government.

It took real effort from the backbenches, from child poverty campaigners and from those of us in the Cabinet who understood the Tory trap of the two-child limit, understood the

that it was a popular policy with the public having it there, but felt that lifting children out of poverty was a moral cause and we should take on and fight the argument.

So you were arguing for it in turn.

Yeah, but we had to drag the Prime Minister to the position.

And everyone knows that.

And he now sort of goes out as if this was an act of real clarity and conviction.

I mean, the way you're talking, you're making it sound like a hypocrite.

You can smell inauthenticity from a mile off.

And I think one of the problems is

And this goes to the sort of heart of why the mistakes the government have made also play into how people feel about the Prime Minister.

So does he not always tell the truth?

Well, I'm not going to sit here and call him names because I also think that there is, in some ways, a disproportionate animosity to the Prime Minister from the public.

And he's someone I've worked with, like personally, and have respect for.

So I'm not going to sit here and level a character assassination.

But as I said in my letter...

where we need vision, we have a vacuum.