Politics

‘Economically illiterate’ PM thinks inflation is a tax

Rishi Sunak compared himself to Margaret Thatcher as he resisted calls from Tories to commit to tax cuts in a pre-election giveaway.

The Prime Minister vowed to prioritise measures to reduce inflation rather than taxes, insisting his is a “deeply Conservative” approach.

Cabinet minister Michael Gove on Sunday called for taxes to be cut before the next election, while former prime minister Liz Truss is among dozens of Tory MPs who have said they will refuse to vote for new tax rises.

Mr Sunak said “we’re all Conservatives, of course we want to cut taxes”, but he insisted: “The best tax cut, though, that I can deliver right now for the country is to halve inflation.”

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Baroness Jenny Jones dubbed the PM’s remarks “economically illiterate”, while Mike Galsworthy pointed out that the purpose of taxes is to raise government funds for investment.

Watch Sunak’s comments below:

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Jack Peat

Jack is a business and economics journalist and the founder of The London Economic (TLE). He has contributed articles to VICE, Huffington Post and Independent and is a published author. Jack read History at the University of Wales, Bangor and has a Masters in Journalism from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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