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Daily Record
Politics
Peter Davidson

Michael Gove savages Liz Truss moments after BBC interview as he hints he won't vote for tax cuts

Michael Gove has taken aim at Liz Truss over the mini budget that caused turmoil on the markets last week due to huge unfunded tax cuts.

The Aberdeen-born former Cabinet Minister appeared on the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg show moments after the Prime Minister admitted she had made mistakes with the fiscal statement last Friday, however she refused to u-turn on any of her plans.

Truss admitted on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that she could have done more to prepare the ground for Kwasi Kwarteng's financial statement, which spooked the markets, sent the pound plummeting, and forced a £65 billion intervention by the Bank of England to restore order.

The PM said the mini-budget's most controversial measure - the abolition of the 45 per cent tax rate on earnings over £150,000 - was not discussed with the Cabinet but was a decision made by the Chancellor.

Following the interview Kuenssberg asked Gove his thoughts on the PM, he said: "I thought it was right for the Prime Minister to acknowledge that the events of Friday, that fiscal event need to be revisited. There needs to be a recognition of mistakes.

"On the basis of what the Prime Minister said, and she was very clear and authoritative, but it is still the case, I think that there is an inadequate realisation at the top of government of the scale of change required.

"The energy package was the most important thing in the fiscal event, but broadly 35 per cent of the additional money that we are borrowing is not to cut energy costs. It is for unfunded tax cuts."

Kuenssberg asks: "You sound concerned about that."

Gove replies: "Profoundly. There are two things that are problematic. Two major things that were problematic with the fiscal event. The first is he sheer risk of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts, that is not conservative.

"The second thing is the decision to cut the 45p rate and at the same time to change the law which governs how bankers are paid in the City of London. Ultimately at time when people are suffering and you're quite right to point out the concerns we have to do with mortgages, to do with benefits and when you have additional, within reason, plans in place to have as a principal decision cutting taxes for the wealthiest, that is simply the wrong values."

Gove also hinted he may not be able to vote for the mini budget laid out by Kwarteng which could cause trouble for the new Prime Minister.

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