London: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Monday promised that he is ready to “responsibly” cut taxes now that his target to halve inflation by the end of this year has been met.
However, the British Indian leader sought to balance expectations from the Autumn Statement budget scheduled for this week by cautioning that the government won’t be doing “everything at once”.
Amid mounting pressure from sections of the governing Conservative Party to use tax cuts to revive the party’s electoral fortunes, Sunak said that he intends to implement the next phase of economic growth by turning to taxation in a disciplined way.
There has been widespread speculation that UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will be unveiling some tax measures when he delivers the Autumn Statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday.
“I want to cut taxes, I believe in cutting taxes, what clearer expression could there be of my governing philosophy than the belief that people, not government, make the best decisions about their money,” said Sunak, in a speech in north London.
“But doing that responsibly is hard. We must avoid doing anything that puts at risk our progress of controlling inflation, and no matter how much we might want them to, history shows that tax cuts don’t automatically pay for themselves,” he said.
Sunak warned that it wasn’t possible to “click my fingers and suddenly wish away” all the reasons that the country’s tax burden was so high in the first place because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Now that inflation has halved and our growth is stronger, meaning revenues are higher, we can begin the next phase and turn our attention to cutting tax,” the British prime minister said.
“We can’t do everything all at once. It will take discipline and we need to prioritise, but over time we can and we will cut taxes,” he noted.
Pushed for more details by reporters, the Prime Minister was categorical that he would not pre-empt the decisions that his Chancellor is set to table in Parliament on
Wednesday.
“We will prioritise, we will be disciplined and our focus is very much the supply side and growing the economy,”
he added.