Liz Truss to urge government to cut taxes – and insist her economic plan would have worked

Published

9 months ago

September 18, 2023

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Liz Truss is set to urge the government to cut taxes – and insist her plan to grow the economy would eventually have worked.

A year on from her disastrous mini-budget, the former Tory prime minister will also say it was unfair to suggest her programme of tax cuts, amounting to £45bn, was unfunded.

She and her chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, were in a “rush” to get “results”, she will admit during a speech at the Institute for Government thinktank in central London on Monday.

But Ms Truss will also blame her swift demise on reaction from the “political and economic establishment which fed into the markets”.

Her remarks come after the former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, launched a scathing attack on Ms Truss – accusing her government of turning Britain into “Argentina on the Channel”.

In her speech, Ms Truss will say: “I was effectively forced into a policy reversal under the threat of a UK meltdown.”

She will also claim that describing her planned tax cuts as unfunded is “not a fair or accurate description”.

Ms Truss will add: “Independent calculations by the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggest that cutting the higher rate of income tax and the ‘tourist tax’ would have increased rather than decreased revenues within five years.

“So quite the opposite of being unfunded, these tax cuts could have increased funding for our public services.”

The policies of her successor, Rishi Sunak, will come under fire too.

Ms Truss, who was in office for only 49 days, will claim Mr Sunak’s government has spent £35bn more than she would have had she remained in Downing Street.

“Investment would not have faltered in the North Sea, were it not for the windfall tax,” she will say.

“We would have got moving on fracking and lower energy bills would now be on the horizon.

“A more competitive rate of corporation tax would have persuaded the likes of AstraZeneca not to relocate elsewhere.

“There would have been more duty-free shoppers and a boom in the number of self-employed.”

Ahead of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement, Ms Truss will call for corporation tax to be reduced back down to 19%.

She will also suggest binning the tourist tax (VAT imposed on visitors) and abolishing the windfall tax.

Ahead of her address, Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth has written to the prime minister, calling on him to block Ms Truss’s yet-to-be published resignation honours list.

In the letter to Mr Sunak, Mr Ashworth said: “Families and business across Britain are still paying (the) price for the Conservative Party crashing the economy and leaving working people worse off, with higher taxes, higher mortgages and higher food and energy bills.

“Despite this, it has been widely reported that Liz Truss has submitted up to 14 people to receive resignation honours.

“This means that those who crashed the economy, who left millions to pay more for their mortgage and who undermined our economic institutions could receive an award.

“I urge you to block these honours.”

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper mocked Ms Truss.

She said: “Liz Truss giving a speech on economic growth is like an arsonist giving a talk on fire safety.”

Politics

Scale of gambling scandal for Tories is different magnitude to Labour’s issue

Published

3 hours ago

June 26, 2024

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Scale of gambling scandal for Tories is different magnitude to Labour's issue

After days of furore directed at Rishi Sunak for the election betting scandal, now a Labour candidate is under investigation by the Gambling Commission for his own betting activity – and is immediately suspended.

Is this an equaliser in one of the grubbiest electoral sagas of recent elections? Quite possibly not.

There is no doubting the utter dismay in Labour HQ at the revelation that they too have a candidate caught up in the betting scandal.

Politics live: Labour to return £100k donation to suspended candidate

It lends itself to the easy narrative that there’s a plague on all politicians’ houses – everyone as bad as each other.

However, if the facts are as presented, the scale of the challenge for the Tories is of a different order of magnitude to that now facing Labour.

Labour’s Kevin Craig was suspended immediately after the party was informed by the Gambling Commission of the probe.

We are told that he placed a bet – not on the election date, but that he would lose his race in a general election.

He is certainly guilty of gross stupidity, as he admitted in a statement on Tuesday evening.

However, if this scenario is as presented, it is hard to see an allegation being mounted that he had insider intelligence on the race – unless it can be proved he was deliberately setting out to lose.

An under-pressure Gambling Commission will investigate every candidate’s name on the spreadsheet from gambling companies of those who placed bets – but it is unclear from available facts where this will go.

The Tory betting saga, however, is more complicated and now on its 13th day.

It was almost two weeks ago that Craig Williams – Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide and former Montgomeryshire MP – admitted he had placed a bet on the election date – a date he might have known before the public at large.

He denies he committed any offence, and remains under investigation.

Laura Saunders, standing for the Tories just south in Bristol North West, has also been suspended for putting a bet on the date when her partner worked in Conservative headquarters on the election.

For most of that time, Mr Sunak has been insisting he could not suspend either candidate because of the ongoing probe by the Gambling Commission.

Ministers, as well as opponents, weighed in.

And on Tuesday he reversed that decision under that pressure.

This means there are questions about the prime minister’s own judgement and unwillingness to act on top of questions about the behaviour of those closest to him.

This story has had massive cut through with the public, topping the charts for any news story in the UK – according to YouGov’s AI news tracker – for the last four days.

There is dismay from the cabinet downwards.

Labour’s own problems have undermined their own ability to go on the attack. But it is not clear that voters will see the two issues on the same scale.

The full list of the candidates running for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich is:

Charlie Caiger, independent;
Tony Gould, Reform UK;
Mike Hallatt, independent;
Brett Alistair Mickelburgh, Lib Dems;
Dan Pratt, Greens;
Patrick Spencer, Conservatives.

The full list of candidates for Bristol North West is:

Caroline Gooch, Lib Dems;
Darren Jones, Labour;
Scarlett O’Connor, Reform UK;
Mary Page, Green Party;
Ben Smith, SDP.

The full list of candidates for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr is:

Jeremy Brignell-Thorp, Green Party;
Oliver Lewis, Reform UK;
Glyn Preston, Lib Dems;
Elwyn Vaughan, Plaid Cymru;
Steve Witherden, Labour.

Politics

US politicians who may be spinning the news with crypto

Published

11 hours ago

June 25, 2024

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US politicians who may be spinning the news with crypto

Donald Trump seems to have doubled down on digital assets after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York.

Politics

Four men arrested at Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire home

Published

12 hours ago

June 25, 2024

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Four men arrested at Rishi Sunak's North Yorkshire home

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass in the grounds of the prime minister’s home, police have confirmed.

The incident took place at Rishi Sunak’s constituency address in Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, while he was attending events in London to mark the Japanese state visit.

A police statement said officers were “with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds”.

Politics live: Labour to return £100k donation to suspended candidate

The arrests are connected to a protest by campaigners from Youth Demand. It describes itself as a group of young people who want “the Tories and the Labour Party commit to a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to stop all new oil and gas licences”.

A spokesperson for the group said three of those arrested were taking part in the demonstration, while the fourth person was an independent photographer.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

“The men, aged 52 from London, 43 from Bolton, 21 from Manchester, and 20 from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and enquiries are ongoing.”

It comes after a separate incident last summer, when protesters scaled the roof of Mr Sunak’s home.

They held up banners which said “NO NEW OIL” and draped the building in fabric. It happened while the prime minister and his family were away on holiday in California.

Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Michael Grant, 64, and Mathieu Soete, 38, have pleaded not guilty to criminal damage, with a two-day trial set to take place in July.