Jeremy Hunt says Conservatives ‘will bring down taxes’ in attempt to draw election battle line with Labour – UK politics live | Politics
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- May 17, 2024
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Hunt says the Conservatives ‘will bring down taxes’
The chancellor was asked if he would bring down what was described as “stealth taxes”, by which the questioner meant the freezing of income tax thresholds. Jeremy Hunt replied:
I can’t today tell you what will be in the Conservative manifesto for the next parliament. But what I can do is make a very clear argument that we will bring down taxes, and I can do so with credibility, because that is already what we have been doing.
And employee national insurance is the most economically damaging tax. And by cutting it we are helping to grow the economy the most, and that’s not just our view as Conservatives, it is what the independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) say in their analysis.
Unlike the former prime minister who appointed him as chancellor, Liz Truss, clearly Hunt at the moment does not feel inclined to want to abolish the OBR.
Key events
Labour has said Jeremy Hunt’s speech was an effort by the Tories to deflect from its “£46bn unfunded” ambitions to abolish national insurance.
PA Media quotes a spokesperson saying:
This is another desperate attempt by the Tories to deflect from their £46bn unfunded tax plan that could lead to higher borrowing, higher taxes on pensioners or the end of the state pension as we know it.
All of Labour’s policies are fully costed and fully funded. Unlike the Conservatives, who crashed the economy, Labour will never play fast and loose with the public finances.
Jeremy Hunt would be better spent getting Rishi Sunak to confirm the date of the election, rather than putting out any more of these dodgy dossiers.
This is not the most unpredictable of attack lines from Labour, indeed despite at one point saying denying he could “look into a crystal ball and predict what is going to happen” in one of his replies, Jeremy Hunt specifically said earlier:
[Labour] may try to distract people by claiming the government has its own black hole of £46bn pounds as a result of our ambition to abolish employee national insurance over time.
This is nonsense, because unlike Labour’s commitments, which are for the next parliament, our ambition has no time commitment, because we’ve been explicit that we will only deliver it when it can be afforded.
It will come through growth in the economy, and not by increasing borrowings or cutting spending.
It is frankly disgusting to try to scare pensioners by misrepresenting that policy, but it won’t fool anyone.
On Sky News, political correspondent Rob Powell has said he found that event by Jeremy Hunt “a bit strange to be honest”, wondering “if they’d sort of booked the venue and then couldn’t get the deposit back” and so went ahead with it anyway even though there was nothing to announce.
It was, it should be noted, a purely political party event, not a government event, but Powell observed:
It feels like that was a speech that would be given if there was a general election coming up in mid June, in the same way that Keir Starmer’s speech yesterday felt like it could be coming a month before a general election.
[The Conservatives] were clearly wanting to zero in on what they think Labour will do, rather than what Labour has said they would do.
And also you have the strange spectacle as well of having Jeremy Hunt stood behind a sign saying “Labour’s tax rises” as he is saying the words “I had to put up taxes by £20bn a year.”
Jeremy Hunt has finished speaking now.
Jeremy Hunt has pushed back on being asked about “stealth taxes”, saying:
I would challenge the phrase stealth taxes. That suggests a tax that we’re not open about. We’re not talking about. We’ve been completely open about the fact that I had to put up taxes by £20bn a year in the autumn statement of 2022.
He went on to say:
I think it is very important that people understand that we did that. Because we had an extraordinary situation. The likes of which we’ve never seen before in our lifetimes. Two global shocks in quick succession.
In this bit of the answer he is initially being slightly disingenuous, because his 2022 autumn statement was not a result of those economic events, but directly as a result of the impact of Kwasi Kwarteng’s financial statement.
He did address this later, after being asked “do you agree with Theresa May’s assessment yesterday that Liz Truss’ government helped to undermine the public’s confidence in Conservative economic management?”
He replied:
Mistakes were made. And the first thing I did as chancellor was to reverse those mistakes. And I’ve been very open about that. To her credit, after appointing me as chancellor, Liz Truss did not stand in my way at all. And she told me very clearly I needed to do what I had to do. And I did.
Hunt says the Conservatives ‘will bring down taxes’
The chancellor was asked if he would bring down what was described as “stealth taxes”, by which the questioner meant the freezing of income tax thresholds. Jeremy Hunt replied:
I can’t today tell you what will be in the Conservative manifesto for the next parliament. But what I can do is make a very clear argument that we will bring down taxes, and I can do so with credibility, because that is already what we have been doing.
And employee national insurance is the most economically damaging tax. And by cutting it we are helping to grow the economy the most, and that’s not just our view as Conservatives, it is what the independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) say in their analysis.
Unlike the former prime minister who appointed him as chancellor, Liz Truss, clearly Hunt at the moment does not feel inclined to want to abolish the OBR.
Hunt: water quality problems in England are not a ‘privatisation issue’
The chancellor has described as a “red herring” the notion that privatisation is the root cause of water quality problems in England.
Asked “People in the southwest are drinking unsafe water. We’ve seen sewage pumped into seas and lakes and rivers. Do you accept that your party has failed to ensure that the public have a clean safe water system?”, Hunt replied:
I have the misfortune to represent constituents who have been treated badly by Thames Water and I’m very familiar with these problems.
What I would say is that, again, the difficult decision we are taking as a government is to require water companies to invest more in their network than they have ever done before.
In fact, nearly £100bn pounds of operating expenditure predicted for the next five years.
And the only company that has more leaks than Thames Water, which represents my constituency, is Scottish water, which was not privatised.
So, to talk about this as a privatisation issue is a red herring.
The question is how we get the best investment in the water network going forward. And that is what we’re seeing.
The Daily Express and Daily Mail have both asked questions about the taxing of pensions. Jeremy Hunt is on combative grounds here. He is asked when calling Labour’s plans a “myth” is he accusing them of lying. He says:
Well, calling them a myth is about as rude as I get. But frankly, it is a lie. I don’t make any bones about it. It is fake news. And it is an absolute disgrace to try and win this election by scaring pensioners about a policy that is not true.
He stresses that the costings they are publishing today have been “done by the same Treasury officials that would advise a Labour government if they win the next election.”
It will be interesting to see if the Taxpayers’ Alliance have a view on Treasury officials being used to produce this kind of material ahead of a general election.
Jeremy Hunt has said it wasn’t a great insight that putting up taxes, “as I had to do in the autumn statement in 2022” is not popular.
He says “a future Labour government does not want to cut the tax burden, a future Conservative government will do.”
He says:
Our argument is this is about the future growth of the economy, because we can see looking around the world that more lightly taxed economies have more dynamic private sectors, they grow faster, and in the end that is more money for precious public services like the NHS.
The chancellor claims that adding up the cost of Labour’s commitments would add “the equivalent of two pence on employee national insurance.”
Hunt finishes:
So my challenge to the Labour Party today is simple. You refused to vote for the national insurance cuts in the budget, so come clean with the British people. Are you planning to reverse them? And if not, which other taxes will you put up to pay for your £38bn black hole?
Because on tax, jobs and welfare reform, there isn’t just clear blue water between the parties, there is deep blue water, an ocean of deep blue water.
That is the difference between more jobs or fewer jobs, more people on welfare or fewer, tax cuts or tax rises, more growth or less growth In short, a prosperous future. Or a poor one.
He did not appear to make any reference at all to Brexit as a factor in economic policy or the state of play of the economy.
Hunt is now taking questions – GB News went first, the Daily Express second …
Jeremy Hunt is claiming that they are publishing “50 new official costings of announced Labour policies that show their commitments cost a total of £59bn over the next four years.”
Hunt claims a Labour government would be ‘damaging for every family in the country’
Jeremy Hunt has now moved on to criticising the prospect of a Labour government. He says “this is an election year. People won’t just make a judgement about our record, they make a choice about the future.”
He is making a case that jobs, welfare and taxes are a key dividing lines between the two parties, and that a Labour government will be “damaging for every family in the country.”
Name-dropping Angela Rayner, he says she wants to add “70 new burdens” to businesses. He say the Tories have over 14 years “painstakingly built one of the most flexible labour markets in Europe” which Labour plan to turn into “a French style inflexible labour market”.
He says:
Now it may sound good to offer full employment rights from day one and certainly pleases the unions. But if the impact is fewer new jobs, then the impact on young people and families up and down the country will be an unmitigated tragedy.
Hunt moves on to welfare, saying “Labour has said they are against sanctions. That will mean more people on welfare rolls, not less.”
He says “if businesses are going to find the workers they need, without depending on unlimited migration, we need to move people off welfare into work.”
He says “the final area of substantive difference between the parties is tax.”
He says in her recent major talk Rachel Reeves did not mention cutting taxes once.
He says:
They would like to criticise recent tax rises, thinking people don’t know what caused them. The furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds in cost of living support. But Labour supported those policies, which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics today. What happens to the tax burden next?
Jeremy Hunt accuses the Labour party of “taking people for fools” when they say that “living standards have fallen this parliament” without mentioning the pandemic or the energy crisis.
He said when he became chancellor in October 2022 “The Bank of England said we faced the longest recession in a century. The OBR said we would see the biggest fall in living standards on record. Families were worried about their future. But what actually happened, inflation has fallen to just 3.2% and is expected to fall further next week.”
Jeremy Hunt has started by saying he wants to dispel two myths about the British economy: “Firstly that our economy is doing worse than other similar countries. And secondly, that there’s not much difference between the economic policies of the two main parties.”
He says Rishi Sunak and him have “put the economy back on its feet”. He said it is recovering from three massive shocks: “the consequences of the financial crisis, a once in a century pandemic, and the 1970s style energy shock caused by the invasion of Ukraine.”
The chancellor is making it very clear what the topic of his speech is about – the backdrop behind him is emblazoned with the slogan “Labour’s tax rises”
Jeremy Hunt attempts to draw general election dividing line over tax
Jeremy Hunt, speaking in London, is expected to attempt to draw up an election battle line between the Conservatives and Labour over tax. He will warn that taxes will go up under any incoming Labour government, while promising that if the Conservatives were re-elected, they would go down.
He said:
With no plans to pay for their spending pledges, taxes will go up under any future Labour government as sure as night follows day.
And taxes will go down under a Conservative government because we will do the hard work necessary to keep our economy competitive.
Labour has repeatedly accused the Conservatives of presiding over the highest level of taxation for decades. Hunt is expected to insist in the speech that a new Conservative government would reverse tax increases which he said were driven by the pandemic.
Welcome and opening summary …
Good morning. Keir Starmer’s six pledges have had their tyres thoroughly kicked by government ministers and the media since he announced them yesterday morning, and we can expect reaction to them to continue to dominate politics today.
Here are your headlines …
In the diary today we are expecting words from the chancellor Jeremy Hunt, and also from Scotland’s first minister John Swinney. The Commons will be debating private members’ bills.
There is also some business in the Lords, but the Scottish parliament, Senedd and Northern Ireland assembly have nothing scheduled. The Post Office Horizon IT inquiry will be hearing from Alisdair Cameron, CFO and former interim chief executive of Post Office Ltd.
It is Martin Belam with you today. I do try to read all of your comments, and chip in if I think I can be helpful, but the best way to attract my attention is via email. Drop me a line at [email protected], and I find it particularly helpful if you flag up typos/errors/omissions, thank you.
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