Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has insisted his tax cuts are about “long-term growth” for the economy, calling it “silly” to think they were instead about the timing of the next election.
The Conservative Party has been told to be ready for a general election from 1 January, a senior government source told Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby, with a vote being called as early as May if Wednesday’s autumn statement goes down well with voters.
In his speech to the Commons, Mr Hunt announced a raft of measures that some see as a pre-election giveaway, including reducing national insurance for employees from 12% to 10% and scrapping it entirely for the self-employed.
The chancellor told Sky News he hadn’t chosen “the most populist tax cuts”, with most of the policies aimed at boosting business growth.
But he denied the NI cuts were there to win over voters ahead of a campaign, saying: “It’s silly to think about this in terms of the timing of the next election. We’re trying to make the right decisions for long-term growth of the economy.”
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The tax cuts came amid long-standing pressure from the Tory backbenches to reduce the burden on both the public and business, which has been sat at a 70-year high.
But a general election is also looming, with the government having to call the ballot by January 2025 at the latest, and the Conservatives are still lagging behind Labour in the polls.
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0:25
Hunt: It will ‘take time’ to lower taxes
A senior government source told Beth Rigby that the Tories’ campaign director, Issac Levido, is due to join the party’s headquarters on a full-time basis from the new year in order to make sure they are ready for the election as soon as possible.
Another senior source also told Sky News’ political editor that the plan was to “prepare for November” but be “ready for May”, in case the tax cuts help them narrow the gap, giving them a better chance of winning an historic fifth term in office.
But it also gives them an option if the measures go down badly on their own backbenchers and a confidence vote is called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s leadership, allowing him to trigger a snap election.
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Mr Hunt defended the fact the tax burden had been so high in recent years, telling Sky News’ Kay Burley “it was right to help families” through COVID and the cost of living crisis, but that comes at a cost.
“I also think it’s right to make a start in bringing down taxes,” he added. “But the taxes that I brought down are not the crowd pleasers that were on the tip of everyone’s tongues, inheritance tax or income tax.
“They’re the taxes that are going to help businesses grow, and that is the way that we will increase our long term prosperity, raise wages, raise living standards. And that was the choice that a Conservative government made yesterday.”
He added: “What I do acknowledge is that we’re going to show discipline in public spending. It’s not going to grow in real terms as fast as some people would like.
“But that is happening because I’m choosing to cut taxes mainly for business, and to help businesses recruit more people.
“I accept that we are going to have to make difficult decisions, not do all the spending that everyone would want. But what I would say in the longer run is if you want to put more money into the NHS, you need a strong economy.”
The chancellor also attempted to draw a line in the sand between the Tories and Labour, adding: “What Conservatives say is the only way that we’ll increase prosperity for families up and down the country is by making businesses more competitive. It’s what economists call supply side measures.
“The Labour approach is to boost demand in the economy by raising borrowing by £28bn a year. I agree that has a short term impact, but the longer term result of increasing borrowing is more debt, higher debt payments, that means that taxes have to go up to pay for them, that makes our economy less competitive.
“So there is a very big difference between the Conservative approach and the Labour approach. And why, in the end, do people vote Conservative in elections? It’s because they trust us to make decisions for the long term growth of the economy. That’s what we did yesterday.”
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2:06
UK growth ‘a dead end’ under Tories
Giving her assessment of the autumn statement, Labour’s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves said there “wasn’t anything… that remotely compensates for the tax increases that we have had under the Conservatives these last four years” and the tax burden under the Tories was just set to increase.
Speaking to Sky News, she added: “In the end, how do you know if you’re better off? It’s your bank balance.
“And the truth is that this will be the first parliament ever where real disposable incomes are going to be lower at the end of it than they were at the beginning.
“People can see that when they look at their bank statements, when they log in to their bank accounts and see that the taxes that are being taken, the mortgage payments that are going out, the gas and electricity bills… that again are going to rise in January, all putting big pressure on the family finances and the tax increases that have already been announced [are more] than the chancellor gave back yesterday.”
Reform UK has hit back at both the Archbishop of York and the government following criticism of its immigration policies.
Leader Nigel Farage announced the party’s flagship immigration plan during a flashy news conference held at an aircraft hangar in Oxford on Tuesday.
The party pledged to deport anybody who comes to the UK illegally, regardless of whether they might come to harm, and said it would pay countries with questionable human rights records – such as Afghanistan – to take people back.
It also said it would leave numerous international agreements, and revoke the Human Rights Act, in order to do this.
The policy was criticised by the Conservatives, who said Mr Farage was “copying our homework”, while parties such as the Liberal Democrats and the Greens condemned it.
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Image: Archbishop Stephen Cottrell and Richard Tice MP. Pics: PA
But the plan came under fire from an altogether different angle on Saturday, when the Archbishop of York accused it of being an “isolationist, short-term kneejerk” approach, with no “long-term solutions”.
Stephen Cottrell, who is the acting head of the Church of England, told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he had “every sympathy” with those who find the issue of immigration tricky. But he said Reform UK’s plan does “nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country”, and would in fact, make “the problem worse”.
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10:50
In full: Richard Tice on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips
Speaking on the same programme, Richard Tice, Reform’s deputy leader, responded to the archbishop’s criticisms, saying that “all of it is wrong”.
The MP for Boston and Skegness said he was a Christian who “enjoys” the church – but that the “role of the archbishop is not actually to interfere with international migration policies”.
Mr Tice then turned his fire on the government, accusing ministers of being “more interested in protecting the rights of people who’ve come here illegally… than looking after the rights of British citizens”.
He accused ministers of having “abandoned” their duty of “looking after the interests of British citizens”.
Mr Tice reaffirmed his party’s policy that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), calling it a “70-year-old, out-of-date, unfit-for-purpose agreement”.
The Reform UK deputy leader also:
• Defended plans to pay the Taliban to take migrants back, comparing it to doing business deals with “people you don’t like”
• Said the Royal Navy should be deployed in the English Channel as a “deterrent”, but added: “We’re not saying sink the boats”
• Urged the government to call an early general election
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18:09
Farage ‘wants to provoke anger’
Meanwhile, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, told Sky News that Reform “want to provoke anger, but they don’t actually want to solve the problems that we face in front of us”.
She told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips the UK had a “proud tradition [of] supporting those facing persecution”.
But she added: “We will make sure that people who have no right to be in this country are removed from this country. That’s right. It’s what people expect. It’s what this government will deliver.”
Ms Phillipson also insisted there “needs to be reform of the ECHR” and said the home secretary is “looking at the article eight provisions”, which cover the right to a private and family life, to see “whether they need updating and reforming for the modern age”.
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However, she refused to say what the government would do if it is found that the ECHR is unreformable. Instead, she defended Labour’s position of staying in the governance of the convention, saying that honouring the “rule of law” is important.
She added: “Our standing in the world matters if we want to strike trade deals with countries. We need to be a country that’s taken seriously. We need to be a country that honours our obligations and honours the rule of law.”
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1:15:33
Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips
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1:35
Asylum seekers to remain at Bell Hotel
Ms Phillipson was also drawn on the recent court ruling in favour of the Home Office, which overturned an injunction banning The Bell Hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers.
Challenged on whether the government is prioritising the rights of asylum seekers over British citizens, she said it “is about a balance of rights”.
The cabinet minister also repeated the government’s plans to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029.
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7:08
‘We should have overruled law’
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the Conservatives would be willing to leave the ECHR – if this route is recommended to them.
The Tories have asked a senior judge to look into the “legal intricacies” of leaving the convention, which he said is “not straightforward”. He said when the party receives that report, it will then make a decision.
Challenged on whether the Tories will leave if that is what the report recommends, he added: “If that’s what’s necessary, we will do it.”
Mr Burghart also said he believed the previous Conservative government’s biggest mistake was that “we did not go far enough on overruling human rights legislation”, which prevented it from “taking the tough action that was absolutely necessary”.
But he added the Conservatives have now “put forward very clear legislation that would solve this problem” – though he concluded Labour “isn’t going to do it” so the problem “is going to get worse”.
The Archbishop of York has told Sky News the UK should resist Reform’s “kneejerk” plan for the mass deportation of migrants, telling Nigel Farage he is not offering any “long-term solution”.
Stephen Cottrell said in an interview with Trevor Phillips he has “every sympathy” with people who are concerned about asylum seekers coming to the country illegally.
But he criticised the plan announced by Reform on Tuesday to deport 600,000 people, which would be enabled by striking deals with the Taliban and Iran, saying it will not “solve the problem”.
Mr Cottrell is currently acting head of the Church of England while a new Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen.
Image: Pic: Jacob King/PA Wire
Image: The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell in 2020.
File pic: PA
Phillips asked him: “What’s your response to the people who are saying the policy should be ‘you land here, unlawfully, you get locked up and you get deported straight away. No ifs, no buts’?”
Mr Cottrell said he would tell them “you haven’t solved the problem”, adding: “You’ve just put it somewhere else and you’ve done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.
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“And so if you think that’s the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.
“Don’t misunderstand me, I have every sympathy with those who find this difficult, every sympathy – as I do with those living in poverty.
“But… we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk ‘send them home’.”
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2:04
What do public make of Reform’s plans?
Image: Nigel Farage at the launch of Reform UK’s plan to deport asylum seekers. Pic: PA
Asked if that was his message to the Reform leader, he said: “Well, it is. I mean, Mr Farage is saying the things he’s saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the big issues which are convulsing our world, which lead to this. And, I see no other way.”
Mr Farage, the MP for Clacton, was asked at a news conference this week what he would say if Christian leaders opposed his plan.
“Whoever the Christian leaders are at any given point in time, I think over the last decades, quite a few of them have been rather out of touch, perhaps with their own flock,” he said.
“We believe that what we’re offering is right and proper, and we believe for a political party that was founded around the slogan of family, community, country that we are doing right by all of those things, with these plans we put forward today.”
Sky News has approached Mr Farage for comment.
Farage won’t be greeting this as good news of the gospel – nor will govt ministers
When Tony Blair’s spin doctor Alastair Campbell told journalists that “We don’t do God”, many took it as a statement of ideology.
In fact it was the caution of a canny operator who knows that the most dangerous opponent in politics is a religious leader licensed to challenge your very morality.
Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, currently the effective head of the worldwide Anglican communion, could not have been clearer in his denunciation of what he calls the Reform party’s “isolationist, short term, kneejerk ‘send them home'” approach to asylum and immigration.
I sense that having ruled himself out of the race for next Archbishop of Canterbury, Reverend Cottrell feels free to preach a liberal doctrine.
Unusually, in our interview he pinpoints a political leader as, in effect, failing to demonstrate Christian charity.
Nigel Farage, who describes himself as a practising Christian, won’t be greeting this as the good news of the gospel.
But government ministers will also be feeling nervous.
Battered for allowing record numbers of cross- Channel migrants, and facing legal battles on asylum hotels that may go all the way to the Supreme Court, Labour has tried to head off the Reform challenge with tougher language on border control.
The last thing the prime minister needs right now is to make an enemy of the Almighty – or at least of his representatives on Earth.