A Tory peer and former minister has branded a “significant and sizable wing” of his own party “completely and utterly insane”.
Lord Vaizey, who served as David Cameron’s culture secretary, called on Conservative MPs to stop “banging on” about tax cuts and said the calls were “totally barmy”.
He highlighted an “obsession” among some Tory MPs with cutting taxes, accusing them of a “misreading of history”.
“It is totally barmy, this complete obsession from a wing of the Conservative Party, that you should cut taxes,” Lord Vaizey said. “It is a significant and sizable wing that is completely and utterly insane,” he added.
Lord Vaizey called on Conservative MPs to end their “obsession” with cutting taxes— (Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament)
His comments came after Jeremy Hunt all but ruled out any tax cuts before the next general election, expected to be held next year.
The chancellor said he will “not countenance tax cuts if they make the battle against inflation harder”. Mr Hunt told The Financial Times: “If we were to pump billions of pounds of additional demand into the economy when inflation is already too high, that would mean fiscal policy working against monetary policy.”
His comments will disappoint Tory backbenchers who have been agitating for lower taxes. Under current plans, the tax burden is set to reach the highest level since the Second World War by 2027-28.
But, speaking on the BBC’s Politics Live, Lord Vaizey said cutting taxes would not “make a material difference in working people’s lives”.
Lord Vaizey said Margaret Thatcher ‘raised taxes in her first term to stabilise the economy’— (John Lawrence)
He added: “What will help working people will be to reduce inflation, to hopefully at some point see a topping out of interest rates and interest rates starting to fall.
“It’s a complete misreading of history, I don’t know why they bang on about it.”
Lord Vaizey pointed to former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who “raised taxes in her first term to stabilise the economy”.
“Some people think that caused a lot of economic damage, but she did it and she only reduced taxes when she felt it was safe to do so,” he added.
Lord Vaizey also responded to calls from leading Tory Brexiteer George Eustice for Rishi Sunak to negotiate deals with European countries offering work visas for young people. Mr Eustice admitted the UK needed more workers from the EU to ease Labour shortages and curb inflation.
Lord Vaizey said: “Welcome again, we are back with the insane wing of the Conservative Party.
“They promised us Brexit was going to be an absolute Nirvana... guess what, we need people from the EU to come and work here.
“Guess what, lots of Brits would like to work in the EU and perhaps even retire in the EU.
“George Eustice has just effectively proposed free movement of people but with bureaucratic knobs on.
“We are going back to the future and it is so frustrating.”
