Sunday 2 October 2022 11:15 PM Liz Truss's allies accuse Michael Gove of serial disloyalty after he savages ... trends now
Michael Gove faced a backlash from fellow Tories last night after savaging the Government’s mini-Budget on the first day of the Conservative Party conference.
The former Cabinet minister used a series of appearances at the Birmingham conference to stoke anger towards Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s plan to abolish the 45p top tax rate – prompting one senior Tory to ask: ‘Isn’t getting rid of one prime minister enough for him?’
A defiant Mr Kwarteng will today pledge to ‘stay the course’ with his radical plans, saying that years of economic policy consensus have left Britain in a state of ‘slow, managed decline’ that must be reversed.
The Chancellor will promise an ‘iron-clad commitment to fiscal discipline’ as he seeks to reassure jittery financial markets.
Michael Gove (pictured) has used a series of appearances at the Birmingham conference to stoke anger towards Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s plan to abolish the 45p top tax rate (file image)
The former cabinet minister said it was 'not Conservative' to use 'borrowed money' to fund scrapping the 45p income tax rate
But in a pre-emptive strike yesterday, Mr Gove said it was ‘not Conservative’ to use ‘borrowed money’ to fund scrapping the 45p income tax rate. And former transport secretary Grant Shapps last night echoed his comments, saying the Government should not be handing ‘big giveaways to those who need them least’. Mr Gove’s intervention has sparked disputed claims that he is acting as an outrider for Rishi Sunak, who he backed against Miss Truss in the Tory leadership race.
A string of other Sunak-supporting MPs spoke out against the Government’s plan to axe the top tax rate after Mr Gove described it as ‘a display of the wrong values’.
Writing in the Times, the former transport secretary Grant Shapps said scrapping the 45p tax rate was 'politically tin-eared' and said the policy has managed to alienate almost everyone - 'from a large section of the Tory parliamentary party taken by surprise to the City traders who will actually benefit’
Writing in The Times today, Mr Shapps, who also backed Mr Sunak, said: ‘This politically tin-eared cut, not even a huge revenue raiser and hardly a priority on the prime ministerial to-do list, has managed to alienate almost everyone, from a large section of the Tory parliamentary party taken by surprise to the City traders who will actually benefit.’
Last night it emerged MPs will not be asked to approve the scrapping of the 45p rate – a move that will benefit those earning more than £150,000 – until they have learned how it will be funded in the Chancellor’s medium-term plan on November 23, raising the possibility that it could be delayed.
Last night senior Tories warned that Mr Gove’s actions could further damage the party, which is already trailing heavily behind Labour in the polls.
One No 10 insider described the former minister as ‘deluded’.
Another ally said his decision to tour the conference criticising the Government’s programme was
