Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt pushed back on the prospect of imminent cuts to income tax or national insurance, following weekend reports that he’s considering doing so in his Autumn Statement this week.
“The one thing we won’t do is any kind of tax cut that fuels inflation,” Hunt said Sunday on Sky News, when asked about the reports. Still, “we need to show there is a path to a lower-tax economy,” he added.
Hunt is under pressure from his own Conservative Party to deliver bold economic plans in his fiscal set-piece on Wednesday as the Tories look for ways to narrow a 20-point polling deficit against the opposition Labour Party. On Sunday Hunt reiterated his desire to boost growth with a focus on cutting business taxes.
Hunt repeated his inflation warning in a separate interview with the BBC, saying he wants to reduce the tax burden in a “responsible” way. “I’m not going to sacrifice the progress we’ve made in bringing down inflation,” he said.
Nevertheless, Hunt said “everything is on the table” as he and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak make their final decisions on what to include. The Sunday Times reported earlier that Hunt and Sunak are weighing last-minute cuts to income tax or national insurance, without saying how it got the information.
