Sunak makes low-tax pitch as UK leadership question looms

Bloomberg

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak laid out a vision to cut taxes in the UK, establishing his credentials as a Thatcherite who can appeal to the members of his Conservative Party who are questioning Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership following a succession of scandals.
“I firmly believe in lower taxes,” Sunak said at the annual Mais lecture at the Bayes Business School in London, an event used by past chancellors to signal their economic plans and discuss their politics. Sunak said his priority is to cut taxes on business investment, and also that Britons should be “able to make decisions about how to save, invest or use the money we earn.”
Sunak’s stance is designed to appeal to the party faithful amid increasing displeasure from rank-and-file Conservatives at his record on tax so far.
He’s put Britain on course to its highest tax burden since
the 1950s, including a new 1.25% payroll tax that will start in April to pay for health and
social care.
“The problem is the yawning chasm between the rhetoric and the reality,” said Julian Jessop, an independent economist and research fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free-market think-tank. “Actions speak louder than words.”
But Sunak also took a swipe at some of his Tory critics, dismissing “the flippant claim that ‘tax cuts always pay for themselves.’” Instead he pledged to cut taxes in a “responsible way.”