A Scottish Conservative MP has said a possible plan to cut benefits to fund tax reductions for the richest is “not a good idea” but that he would not be drawn into “hypotheticals”.
Andrew Bowie, speaking to BBC Radio Scotland from Birmingham where the Conservative Party Conference is getting under way, said “in principle” it is not the right thing to do.
“In principle, cutting welfare to pay for tax cuts is not would not be the right thing to do. But that’s not what’s been laid in front of us,” he said.
The Kincardine and West Aberdeenshire MP’s comments come after Liz Truss was interviewed on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg where she declined to commit to the annual uprating of benefits in line with inflation, as millions feel the pain of the soaring costs of energy and food.
Ms Truss defended plans to cut the top rate of income tax for the nation’s wealthiest as part of her controversial £45 billion package of tax reductions, but did not rule out cuts to public services.
On the same programme, former Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who is now a backbencher, said he is “profoundly concerned” about the economic plans Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng put forward in the mini-budget last month.
He said: “Thirty-five percent of the money we’re borrowing was nothing to do with the energy crisis. It was the deliberate tax cuts, the sheer risk of using borrowed money to deliver unfunded cuts is fundamentally not conservative.”
BBC journalist Martin Geissler asked Mr Bowie if Mr Gove is right.
Mr Bowie replied: “Yes, he’s right.”
Mr Geissler said it is a “damning indictment of where we are”.
He added: “You started this interview by backing them up and saying ‘Listen, give them a chance, they’re probably on the money’ and now you’re saying you share his profound concerns about where we are.”
Mr Bowie said: “I share people’s concerns about where we are right now. But I think it’s incumbent on all of us to give the Chancellor the space and the time to expand on those plans and set out more detail, and for us to be able to determine whether or not we support those plans.”
The MP, who was first elected in 2017, said when Mr Kwarteng and Ms Truss “explain the plans” then the markets will “respond accordingly”.
Mr Geissler then asked if Mr Bowie will be voting for the plans in Parliament amid rumours of a backbench rebellion.
The MP refused to say, and responded: “As I said, we’re going to hear more from the Chancellor exactly what his plans are for the economy this week.
“We’re going to take a decision based on what those plans are, and every Conservative MP will have to examine those plans in detail and in depth and come to a decision as to whether or not they support it.”
