THE Tories are preparing to cut benefits in order to cut taxes, Rishi Sunak has suggested.
In an interview with the Telegraph, the Tory leader claimed that his government would reduce taxes by making “difficult decisions” about welfare spending.
“When I say that I want to keep cutting taxes, that’s what we’re going to deliver,” Sunak said.
“We’re going to do that responsibly. That requires difficult decisions on public spending. It requires difficult decisions to control welfare. Those, I believe, are the right things to do for our country. That’s what I want to do.
“I’m very clear, I want to control public spending, I want to control welfare, which we’re doing and because we’re doing that, and because we’re being disciplined with borrowing and our debt, we’re going to be in a position to cut taxes.”
Asked which taxes the Tories would be looking to cut, Sunak did not say.
Instead, he said: “I believe in the nobility of work, I believe work is central to people’s lives. And I believe that in a society where people are working hard should be one where their hard work is rewarded.”
There have been suggestions that the Conservatives will look at hand-outs for society’s wealthiest with a cut to inheritance tax.
According to the most recent government figures available, in the tax year 2020 to 2021 just 3.73% of UK deaths resulted in an inheritance tax charge.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has claimed it is a “pernicious tax,” but did not pledge tax cuts in the way Sunak appeared to.
“I don’t know at this stage whether it’s going to be affordable to reduce taxes, and I would only do so if it was responsible to do so,” Hunt told the BBC on Saturday.
The Tory Chancellor (above) further said he would be “focusing on growth”, something which Keir Starmer’s Labour have also made clear is their first priority.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Sunak claimed that a focus on tax cuts would be the “contrast between us and the Labour Party at the next election”.
He went on: “Lots of people will say to us, oh, gosh, you’re not going to spend enough here, there and everywhere. I’m going to be crystal clear. My priority is cutting taxes, not more government spending ... so that’s the plan.”
Sunak further told the Telegraph that if Labour gets into power then “taxes are going up”.
That is despite Labour leader Keir Starmer pledging in September that he would not raise taxes if he secures the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, asked by The Daily Mirror whether national insurance could rise under a future Labour government, said: “You will not see increases in taxes on working people under a Labour government.”
The Prime Minister’s latest comments come after the main rate of national insurance was cut by two percentage points, from 12% to 10%.
But Labour said it amounted to a “raw deal” as Hunt has kept tax thresholds frozen — a fiscal policy first introduced by Sunak when he was chancellor during the coronavirus pandemic.
The frozen thresholds will provide a de facto tax rise to millions as their wages increase with inflation while tax bands remain static.
