Rishi Sunak promises tax cut ‘gear shift’ ahead of next year’s general election
Rishi Sunak has promised a “gear shift” in his approach to taxes ahead of next year’s general election.
The Prime Minister vowed taking tough decisions on controlling welfare and public spending would give his party the freedom to “cut your taxes”.
Speaking to the Spectator, Sunak stressed: “Our priority, going forward, is to control spending and welfare so that we can cut taxes.
“We are in a position to be able to do all that because we have got inflation down. The economy has turned a corner and that means that there can be a gear shift in how we approach taxes.”
But his comments came amid a torrid week for No10, with Labour still boasting a 20-point poll lead, Sunak’s own personal ratings falling to their lowest level on record – and his right-leaning backbenchers flirting with rebellion over the government’s flagship Rwanda bill.
The party are ending the year in the hope that tax cuts announced in the Autumn Statement – including cutting National Insurance Contributions from 12 per cent to 10 per cent – will prompt a revival of their fortunes when they take effect in early January.
However, it comes as the overall tax burden is at its highest since the Second World War, thanks to a combination of corporation tax hikes and fiscal drag – where salary increases to offset inflation have pulled workers into higher tax brackets, which remain frozen by government..
Sunak told the right-leaning political magazine he was a “Thatcherite in the truest sense” and stressed: “As Nigel Lawson and Margaret Thatcher said: cut inflation, cut taxes.
“That’s what we’ve done! We have delivered more tax cuts in one fiscal event than at any point since the 1980s.”
Defending the tax burden, he argued: “It’s because we had a once-in-a-century pandemic and a war in Ukraine, both of which necessitated an enormous response from government.
“I think it’s completely fine to have said the government should not have responded to help everyone with energy bills, the government should not have responded during Covid… [but] nobody did, not a single person said that you shouldn’t have done all those things.”
And he added: “The choice at the next election is between me and Keir Starmer.
“A Labour party that wants to borrow £28bn a year is not going to control welfare or public spending. A Conservative party is going to do those things – and cut your taxes instead.”
Labour was approached for comment.