Brexit Steves face off: Baker slams Barclay’s Treasury committee performance
Tory backbencher Steve Baker has hit out at Treasury minister Steve Barclay for avoiding questions in a fiery House of Commons committee hearing.
Baker, a prominent Eurosceptic, said afterward that Barclay, a former Brexit secretary, “avoided saying anything new or noteworthy” and that the Treasury would be happy as a result of his performance.
Barclay faced questions at the session from members of the Treasury Select Committee on the government’s economic response to the coronavirus.
Baker asked the minister a series of questions on hospitality workers’ access to the government’s job retention scheme, along with other questions on the Covid-19 self-employment package and procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Taking to Twitter afterward, Baker indicated he was not pleased with the answers he received.
“I was a minister for long enough, in a tricky enough department to know this Commons Treasury session is shaping up to be a good one for the Treasury: one in which the minister avoided saying anything new or noteworthy,” he said.
“I know you are counting on us – we will press forward.”
Allison McGovern became visibly frustrated in the session, after Barclay dodged her questions on what the Treasury was doing to plan out the government’s exit from the coronavirus lockdown.
Barclay said: “There’s a huge number of people in the Treasury working on this issue, but the point is first and foremost it is not a choice between the economics and the health…”
A clearly exasperated McGovern cut-off Barclay mid-sentence.
She said: “I didn’t say it was. My question is what preparation is the treasury doing so that whatever we need to do to protect people’s health, we are not leaving towns or regions or places that are disproportionately affected to deal with problem on their own?”
Barclay replied by saying it was “something that we’re actively looking at” and that the Treasury was “engaging with the different sectors to look at what measures can be taken within those sectors”.
McGovern tweeted after the session that it had “been frustrating” and that she “was not reassured by the answers”.