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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Letters

Tory tax cut pledges sound death knell for public services

Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor of the exchequer, arrives  in Downing Street.
Nadhim Zahawi used a leadership speech on Monday to announce tax policies that would cost an estimated £50bn a year. Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX/Shutterstock

Your two-page guide to the positions of the candidates vying to become Conservative party leader in your print edition was very instructive as far as it goes (Form guide to potential prime ministers, 11 July). But while the column on “Tax and spending” refers to their views on tax, there is virtually no information on their policies on public expenditure.

This is hardly surprising, as none of the candidates outline their position on expenditure when interviewed, apart from Nadhim Zahawi’s initial pronouncement on a 20% cut in the running costs of every government department, later clarified to mean to a 20% cut in civil service headcounts, plus occasional references to defence spending.

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