Car crash interview: City minister trips up over £10bn infrastructure project
City minister Emma Reynolds was flummoxed by a series of questions about the government’s recent infrastructure announcements in a variously tense and cringe-inducing interview on LBC on Monday morning.
Just seconds into the exchange with Nick Ferrari, Reynolds misspoke and called the Dartford Tunnel – in Kent – the Dartmouth Tunnel – in Devon – instead, with Ferrari saying: “If it was Dartmouth that would be one hell of a crossing”.
Reynolds said the slip was “because I’m obsessed with that part of the world” before blaming “a very early morning”.
Asked about the location of the new crossing, the economic secretary to the Treasury said: “I can’t recall the exact landing zones”.
Ferrari replied: “So, the crossing that you’re talking about. You don’t know where it is?”
Appearing to get back on track, Reynolds outlined the benefits for heavy vehicles and links between the Midlands and the North with the South East, but was cut off by Ferrari, who said: “It’s almost as if you’re reading from a piece of paper there, isn’t it?”
Reynolds said: “You’ll forgive me, Nick, but this is part of a broader, 10-year infrastructure strategy that we will be launching later this week.”
Burning bridges
On the cost of the project, Reynolds said: “It’s going to cost quite a lot of money, but we today are announcing £590m towards that cost.”
When pressed on the exact price of the crossing, she said “several billion pounds”, though the Thames Crossing is set to cost £10bn instead.
Ferrari said: “I don’t mean to be rude to you personally. Is there much point continuing this conversation? Because you don’t know where a bridge starts, you don’t know where it ends, and you don’t know how much it costs.”
“What does this say about the economic stewardship of this country that someone in your position of importance doesn’t know where a bridge starts, you don’t know where it ends and you don’t know how much it costs?”
In an exchange that had grown increasingly heated, Ferrari asked Reynolds: “When will the Hammersmith Bridge problem be solved?”
Reynolds said: “I’m not here to talk about the Hammersmith Bridge. I’m not a transport minister.”
Emma Reynolds was appointed City Minister back in January, to replace Tulip Siddiq after the North London MP resigned amid allegations over her links to the former government in Bangladesh.
Following Labour coming to power at the General Election last year, Square Mile watchers broadly felt that Reynolds would be appointed to the City brief in the Treasury.
The Wolverhampton North East MP was managing director of policy at the trade body TheCityUK after losing her seat amid the 2019 Boris Johnson landslide.