Rishi Sunak: My tax cuts are ‘clear dividing line’ with Labour
The Prime Minister said the UK economy had “turned a corner” and that further tax cuts, following measures in last month’s Autumn Statement, were the “direction of travel”.
Speaking to journalists en route to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Sunak was quizzed on the date of the next election, the contents of the Tory manifesto, and the next Budget.
While he refused to be drawn on speculation, the PM joked that he “wouldn’t embarrass anyone” by repeating previous claims that he wouldn’t be able to halve inflation.
“We did deliver it – that did not happen by accident,” he said. “It happened because we took a bunch of decisions and it is going to make a difference to people’s cost of living.
“Everyone said we would enter a recession this year – everybody – we haven’t, we have grown the economy, and we continue to reduce our debt.”
Sunak stressed that his choices on the economy, which he argued had created room to be able to reduce business taxes and National Insurance Contributions (NICs), represented a “very clear contrast” with Sir Keir Starmer’s approach.
He said: “Our policy is clear, control welfare, control spending, cut taxes. But the alternative is, again, they’re talking about how do you approach climate change? The Labour Party wants to borrow £28bn a year. That is a fact, that is the policy.
“That is just going to push up inflation, it’s going to push up our borrowing, it’s going to mean that taxes go up. High borrowing is deferred taxes, as Margaret Thatcher always used to remind me.”
Suggesting how he might look to appeal to the public at the ballot box, Sunak added: “If you want controlled public spending, controlled welfare and taxes cut, then vote Conservative.
“If you want more borrowing, higher welfare and more taxes, vote for the copy-and-paste shadow chancellor and Keir Starmer. That is the contrast that is now very clearly laid out.”
The Prime Minister was also pressed on the timing of the next election, which must take place prior to January 2025, but he insisted: “I’m not going to get into election timing now.”
Asked whether the pensions triple lock would be in the next Tory manifesto, Sunak responded that his government “consistently supports pensioners”.
He said: “We have also just delivered the triple lock in full for this coming year which the Chancellor announced in the Autumn statement.
“There was some scepticism that that might not happen but again it is just a signal of our commitment to look after our pensioners who have put a lot into our country, we owe them a lot and under this government we have consistently shown we will support them and back them.”
While grilled on the question of the BBC licence fee, in light of the Charter Renewal set for 2027, the Prime Minister said it was “welcome” that the BBC were considering savings.
“It’s really important that when things are difficult everyone is doing what they can to ease the cost of living for families,” Sunak said.
“The BBC, like any other organisation that serves the public, should be looking to do that.
“Final decisions haven’t been taken obviously – but the BBC should be realistic about what it can expect people to pay at a time like this. That, I think, is the right approach.”