Former prime minister Rishi Sunak reveals plans to temporarily eliminate value-added tax on household energy bills, if elected prime minister, as he has sought blocking momentum behind foreign minister Liz Truss in her Tory leadership bid.
Sunak’s move follows a new opinion poll that shows Conservative activists believe Truss is superior to her opponent during a televised leadership debate on Monday that took place to new levels of sound.
Members of Tory will vote for Truss or Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister, with a result on 5 September.
The two leadership candidates on Tuesday went head-to-head in another televised debate hosted by TalkTV and The Sun newspaper, which was halted after host Kate McCann fainted. TalkTV later said McCann was “fine”.
Sunak previously as prime minister rejected calls to scrap the 5% VAT rate on domestic fuel amid the cost of living crisis.
In February, Sunak told MPs that eliminating VAT on domestic fuel bills “would disproportionately benefit wealthier households”.
Sunak is also concerned that a “temporary” VAT cut – which would cost more than £4bn if domestic fuel bills averaged over £3,000 a year – could become permanent.
But Truss’s tax-cut promises during the Tory leadership contest helped her become Bookmakers’ favorite to succeed Johnson.
Sunak has warned that Truss’ tax plans, including reversing a national insurance increase he oversaw as prime minister, will cause inflation.
He said his proposed “targeted and temporary” VAT cuts on domestic fuel next year would save the typical household £160 and would reduce prices due to price increases.
He said: “As prime minister, I have deducted £400 from everyone’s energy bills and supported £1,200 for the most vulnerable households. “This additional VAT cut will help deal with the current emergency.”
Truss, meanwhile claimed that, if chosen as prime minister, the police force would be required to cut crimes including murder by 20% by the end of parliament.
Her government will publish tables illustrating how each force ranks. Ineffective forces will be required to attend a meeting with the national governing board.
“It’s time for the police to get back to basics and spend time investigating the real crime, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings,” Truss said. “People can trust me and these league tables will help the police do the math – making our streets safer and our country more prosperous.”
Sunak’s VAT announcement follows a YouGov poll revealing that Tory activists believe Truss outperformed the former prime minister by about 50% to 39% in the BBC1 televised debate on Sunday. Monday.
An earlier Opinium survey found that while ordinary voters think Sunak narrowly narrowing the debate from 39% to 38%, Tory supporters preferred Truss from 47% to 38%.
In the lighter TalkTV exchanges in the BBC1 debate, Truss and Sunak debated their economic policies.
Sunak, who has planned to raise the corporate tax rate from 19% to 25% by 2023, said it was “reasonable” to ask companies to pay more and accused Truss of supporting “big business”. She has pledged not to raise corporate taxes.
Truss said the tax increase introduced by Sunak was “morally wrong” and attack his national insurance rise violated the Conservative Party’s 2019 election manifesto pledge. “We don’t have to break that manifesto commitment. . . I spoke against it,” she added.
Both candidates favor shale gas exploration if supported by the local community.
Sunak sought to destabilize Truss by aggressively attacking her economic policy and repeatedly interrupting her during the BBC1 debate. Thérèse Coffey, work and pensions secretary and supporter of Truss, accused the former prime minister of “misunderstanding”.
Simon Clarke, Treasury Secretary and Truss supporter, accused Sunak of behaving in an “extremely aggressive” manner during the BBC1 debate.
Clarke said on LBC that he has always found Sunak to be a “reasonable person to work with” in the Treasury, but added that his former colleague took a “fairly harsh approach” throughout the debate.
Sunak told BBC1 that Truss’ plan to cut taxes would cause interest rates to skyrocket, crash the economy and put “millions of people in misery”.
Truss said Sunak had pursued “negative, draconian policies” and that the tax hike he introduced as prime minister would lead the country into recession.
Polls suggest Sunak is trailing Truss in the run-up to the election, partly because Tory members blame him for raising taxes to stabilize public finances in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis but also because he found himself disloyal to Johnson. He was also one of the first ministers to resign, prompting Johnson to step down as leader of the Conservative Party.
Sunak’s allies say the former prime minister is beginning to bridge the gap between him and Truss.
They highlighted that 43% of those polled by YouGov noted that Sunak looked more like the prime minister during the BBC1 debate, compared with 42% who said the same about Truss.
In recent days, senior Conservatives have expressed concern at the increasingly negative tones of attacks and briefings by allies of Truss and Sunak.
A former cabinet minister said: “It’s just a godsend for the Labor party and damages the perception of the Tories.”
