David Cameron dodges rookie MP Cat Smith’s questions on poor credit ratings

The Prime Minister was caught off-guard yesterday when a newly-elected Labour MP asked him about the country’s credit rating.

 

Cat Smith stood up in the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the new parliament and said: “Will the Prime Minister inform the House when he expects the UK to regain its triple A credit rating?”

 

Moody’s downgraded the UK from its highest rating, AAA, to Aa1 in February 2013. Fitch followed suit in April 2013, lowering the UK’s credit rating to AA+. Neither rating agency has upgraded the country’s outlook since then, and just last week Moody’s warned that a British exit from the EU could trigger further downgrades.

 

Cameron did not answer Smith’s question directly, instead cracking a joke at the expense of Labour’s leadership candidates.

 

“The first question she asks is about fiscal responsibility and sustainability,” Cameron said. “I take that as a sign of progress.”

 

“I would say to her: there is a leadership election on, throw your hat in the ring,” he added. “In that one question she has made more sense than all the rest of them put together—go for it!”