He worked on 20 Budgets for six Chancellors. On the eve of the new government's first, Lord Burns tells David Davis and Guto Harri what it really takes, and what has to happen next.
In this episode of Politics Unleashed, former Cabinet minister David Davis and former Downing Street director of communications Guto Harri are joined by Lord (Terry) Burns, the Treasury's former Chief Economic Adviser and Permanent Secretary, who taught David at the London Business School.
From Geoffrey Howe to Gordon Brown, he takes us inside the Treasury: the secret final days before a Budget, why advisers advise and ministers decide, and the crises he lived through, from the 1981 Budget to crashing out of the ERM. Then the big question: with debt this high and so little room to manoeuvre, what should Andy Burnham and John Healey actually do? Can growth save us? Is welfare reform unavoidable? And is someone in the Treasury working on a plan B?
Plus the inside story of the Barings collapse, a QPR match and how Ken Clarke coined the phrase "rogue trader".
","author_name":"David Davis & Guto Harri"}