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Rishi Sunak confuses Bury with Burnley in BBC interview at ‘world famous’ market

"The world-famous Burnley market."

Georgina Pellant - 28th October 2021

While standing inside Bury market this morning for an interview with the BBC, the Chancellor appeared to get a bit confused as to where he actually was.

Referring to the “world-famous Burnley market” live on air, he appeared to mistake Bury with Burnley during the television interview – despite the Lancashire town being 20 miles away.

It seemed he mixed up the names of two towns, one in Greater Manchester and the other in Lancashire, whilst being interviewed by BBC Breakfast presenter Ben Thompson in Bury.

The error came after Mr Thompson told Mr Sunak he originated from the Lancashire town.

Answering a question that had been put to him about the Conservative party’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda, Mr Sunak said: “It is not just about being in the North by the way, we’re here in Burnley but if you are growing up in a village in the South West or even on the South Coast, people want to feel the opportunity is there for them, wherever they happen to be.

“I put it down to two things.

“One is having pride in the place you call home and a lot of what we announced yesterday, the levelling-up fund – bids like Burnley market, world-famous Burnley market, benefiting from £20million of investment.

“That’s going to create jobs. It is about improving the everyday infrastructure of our communities.”

Mr Sunak was also put on the spot about his decision to cut air passenger duty (APD) for domestic flights in his Budget ahead of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow – which is kicking off imminently as world leaders descend on Scotland for the world’s most important climate talks to date.

“Of course, it is right that we are consistent with our environmental goals so let me just talk a little about that.

“Aviation in general only accounts for about 8% of our overall emissions, and of that 8% a fraction – just 4% or 5% – comes from domestic aviation, so it is a tiny part of our emissions.

“So, yes, we’re doing this to support domestic aviation, and regional airports will benefit from this, but we are also introducing a brand new band for ultra long-haul travel.

“Those who fly the furthest will pay the highest rates of APD, that’s consistent with our environmental objectives, that’s a new band that will come into force, and, actually, yesterday the independent watchdog said that our plans in the round will reduce carbon emission and move us further along the path to net zero.”

Featured Image – BBC