AS THE Tory Party Conference began in Birmingham yesterday PM Truss boasted that she means to proceed from last week’s huge tax cuts for the rich to massive benefit and budget cuts for the poor and public services.
Appearing on BBC TV yesterday morning, Truss said that the mini-budget cutting the 45p top rate of tax which crashed the UK economy last week was her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s idea and not hers.
She said the decision to cut the top earner tax rate was a ‘decision that the Chancellor made’ and she revealed that it was not discussed with the whole Cabinet beforehand.
But she said she backed it and wouldn’t reverse it, saying: ‘We had to act on taxation to make sure the economy didn’t slow down even further.’
Seeking to blame soaring UK interest rates on Russia, she claimed: ‘Due to the war in Ukraine, perpetrated by Russia, interest rates have gone up through the world.’
She was then asked three times by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: ‘Are you going to cut public spending?’ to which she eventually replied: ‘I believe in getting value for money for the taxpayer, but I can’t exactly set out what is in our medium term fiscal plan.’
She was then asked: ‘Will you increase spending for government departments to enable them to cope with inflation?’This was another question she would only answer obliquely, but making clear that the answer is a clear ‘no’. Truss replied: ‘The debate focuses too much on the input rather than how it feels for the user.’
Asked: ‘Will you raise benefits in line with inflation?’ Truss blustered and would not reply, but was then asked: ‘Are you absolutely committed to abolishing the 45p top tax rate for the very rich?’ She said: ‘Yes, we have to have a tax system which is competitively internationally. I committed during the leadership campaign to lower taxes.’
Kuenssberg responded: ‘When you won’t commit to raise benefits in line with inflation, but you will commit to scrapping the top tax rate, how do you think that looks?’
Truss repeated her previous formula, saying: ‘There’s too much focus on how things look rather than how they feel.’
She continued: ‘The war in Ukraine is regrettably continuing and escalating. Putin is continuing his sabre-rattling, that’s what I’m focusing on.’
She went on: ‘We see huge energy costs and rising inflation due to the war in Ukraine … When people voted Conservative in 2019 they voted for a different future … We do face a very turbulent and difficult time but I am confident we will deliver.’
After Truss’s interview, former Tory minister Michael Gove attacked her policy, describing himself as ‘profoundly concerned’ and adding: ‘The sheer risk of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts is not Conservative.’
Kuenssberg asked: ‘Will you vote for it in the House of Commons?’ to which Gove replied: ‘I don’t think it’s right,’ to which Kuenssberg responded ‘that sounds like a no.’
Tory Party chairman Jake Berry later confirmed that Tory MPs who vote against the Prime Minister’s tax measures will be kicked out of the parliamentary party – known as losing the whip.
The Tory Party threw Daniel Grainger, leader of the Young Conservative Network, out of the party conference and ordered him to leave the city yesterday, after he had caused offence by tweeting on his arrival: ‘Birmingham is a dump.’
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