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Rishi Sunak has ruled out fresh tax rises in next month’s Budget – as Boris Johnson insisted the Tories are still the ‘party of low taxation’.
Ministers acknowledged that this week’s plan for a £12billion-a-year ‘health and social care levy’ was ‘effectively a mini-Budget’.
At the Budget in March this year, the Chancellor set out £30billion-a-year in extra taxes as he set about rebuilding the battered public finances in the wake of the pandemic.
Mr Sunak this week announced plans for the Autumn Budget to take place on October 27, raising fears that taxes could rise again.
But a Treasury insider said there would be no significant tax rises in that Budget. The source said the Chancellor felt he had ‘done enough on the tax side this year’.
Rishi Sunak has ruled out fresh tax rises in next month’s Budget – as Boris Johnson insisted the Tories are still the ‘party of low taxation’
Instead he will present a ‘technical Budget’ which is likely to be overshadowed by a three-year spending review unveiled the same day. The decision came as the debate over the latest tax increase intensified.
Mr Johnson acknowledged that the 1.25 percentage point rise in national insurance which will fund the new care levy breaks his manifesto pledge not to raise the main tax rates. He said it was ‘not something I do lightly’ but said it was necessary to clear the NHS waiting list backlog caused by the pandemic, and tackle the social care crisis.
Last night, the Prime Minister told Tory MPs: ‘We must never forget after all that we’ve been through... we are the
