Sunak Vows ‘Radical’ Income Tax Cut as Truss Team Accuses Ex-Chancellor of ‘Another U-Turn’

With a Tory leadership contest in full swing, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to slash the basic rate of income tax by 20% by 2029 if he becomes UK prime minister, the largest such reduction in 30 years.

“What I’m putting to people today is a vision to deliver the biggest income tax cut since Margaret Thatcher’s government. It is a radical vision but also a realistic one, and there are some core principles that I’m simply not prepared to compromise on, whatever the prize,” Sunak emphasized.

Thatcher was Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990.

The ex-Chancellor also promised that if he prevails in the Tory leadership race, he will “never get taxes down in a way that just puts inflation up.” The 42-year-old added that he will “never make promises” he “can’t pay for” and he will “always be honest about the challenges” Britain faces.

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“Because winning this leadership contest without levelling with people about what lies ahead would not only be dishonest – it would be an act of self-sabotage that condemns us to defeat at the next general election,” Sunak pointed out.

The Daily Mail cited an unnamed source from Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s Tory leadership campaign as accusing Sunak of offering ‘jam tomorrow’.

“It’s welcome that Rishi has performed another U-turn on cutting tax, it’s only a shame he didn’t do this as chancellor when he repeatedly raised taxes. The public and Conservative Party members can see through these flip-flops,” the source argued.

This was echoed by Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury, who underscored that they “cannot afford to wait to help families, they need support now.” He made it clear that “Liz will cut taxes in seven weeks, not seven years.”

Sunak and Truss repeatedly locked horns over the tax issue during live TV debates last month, with the foreign secretary, in particular, accusing the former Chancellor of raising taxes “to the highest level in 70 years,” which is “not going to drive economic growth.”

Sunak claimed that the UK’s massive tax burden was the result of the unprecedented levels of government spending aimed at keeping the national economy afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic. Truss said that no other country was raising taxes, and accused Sunak of having no clear-cut plan for economic growth.

Meanwhile, voting ballots will start landing on doorsteps of Tory members starting Monday, with many of them expected to return the papers long before the September 2 deadline.

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Sunak and Truss are now two remaining candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson as Conservative Party leader and prime minister. Both secured their places in the final two in July, when Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt was knocked out in the fifth round of voting by Conservative MPs.

The two contenders are set to spend the next few weeks campaigning for the votes of about 180,000 Conservative Party members around the country, who will vote by postal or online ballot. The winner of the party leadership race, who will be announced on September 5th, is due to automatically become UK prime minister.