Inside Politics: Going for broke

Sunak vows to cut basic rate of income tax to 16 per cent as ballots are sent out to Tory members, writes Matt Mathers

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Hello there, I’m Matt Mathers and welcome to The Independent’s Inside Politics newsletter.

They did it. England’s Lionesses refused to be caged last night, beating Germany to win the Euro final. Back at Westminster, Liz Truss shows no signs of being tamed in the Tory leadership contest as ballots begin landing on the doormats of party members from today. The candidates set out positions on the NHS and education over the weekend. This morning, Sunak makes a new tax pledge while Truss vows to “unleash” British food and farming.

Inside the bubble

Parliament is not sitting.

Thérèse Coffey, work and pensions secretary and Truss supporter, is on Sky News Breakfast at 8.45am.

John Glen, former Treasury economic secretary and Sunak supporter, also on Sky News Breakfast at 9.20am.

Daily briefing

Taxing times

Congratulations to everybody involved in the England women’s football team. Their fantastic victory at Wembley is the only story in town today and dominates the front of every single news outlet.

Inside, the battle for the keys to No 10 rages on as Sunak promises to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20 per cent to 16 per cent by the end of the next parliament, which could be as late as December 2029 – and assumes that the Tories will win the next election.

Team Sunak says the pledge, costing £18 billion, will be paid for with extra tax receipts from economic growth – the outlook for which looks very bleak indeed, according to recent trends and forecasts.

The Tory leadership contest has been dominated by tax and Sunak clearly feels he has no choice but to go for broke and outdo Truss, the frontrunner, in reducing the burden as he tries to close the gap on his rival as Tory members receive their voting slips, with the winner announced in September.

Unsurprisingly, Team Truss has accused the former chancellor of another U-turn – a claim less well founded than their attack on his VAT pledge – saying that people need tax cuts in seven weeks, not seven years. In keeping with his sound money campaign, Sunak insists that he will not make pledges he can’t pay for and that gripping inflation remains a priority.

Sunak, speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today earlier, insisted that there was a “huge difference” between what he and Truss are saying on the economy when asked why he was now backing tax cuts. “As chancellor, I was very keen to make sure that I started cutting taxes and what I’m announcing today builds on that.”

Truss, meanwhile, says she would “unleash British food and farming” in order to improve the nation’s food security and vowed to “remove onerous EU regulations and red tape” if she becomes prime minister, without outlining in detail which laws she would abolish.

Truss has also been boosted by the endorsement of another high profile MP. Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, has joined former leadership hopefuls Tom Tugendhat and Ben Wallace in throwing their support behind the foreign secretary, while former deputy PM Damian Green has come out for Sunak.

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Nepotism claims

The spectre of outgoing PM Boris Johnson continues to loom large over the Tory Party and the leadership contest to replace him, with friends of his briefing the papers over the weekend that he “feels sorry” for his former government colleague Sunak, who looks destined to lose the race if all the recent polling is anything to go by.

Former PMs are often never too far away from the headlines but you get the sense that the Big Dog could outdo most of his predecessors, and not necessarily in the way that he might hope to.

Scoop machine Simon Walters reports exclusively for The Independent that Johnson is facing fresh claims of nepotism after it was revealed that charity bosses had blocked a government bid to appoint his father as an “ambassador” at last year’s Cop26 climate change summit.

The wildlife charity WWF threw out a request by environment minister Zac Goldsmith, a close friend of the prime minister and his wife Carrie Johnson, to add Stanley Johnson, 81, to its team of experts at the United Nations conference.

Goldsmiths said he can’t “remember” conversations he had about Stanley prior to the summit while Johnson Sr claimed the report was “news to me”.

On the record

Former chancellor says he will continue to focus on bringing down inflation.

“Firstly I will never get taxes down in a way that just puts inflation up. Secondly I will never make promises I can’t pay for. And thirdly I will always be honest about the challenges we face. Because winning this leadership contest without levelling with people about what lies ahead would not only be dishonest, it would be an act of self-sabotage that condemns our party to defeat at the next general election and consigns us to a long period in opposition.”

From the Twitterati

George Parker, Financial Times politics editor, casts doubt on Sunak’s pledge to cut taxes.

“Mmm. Can’t help feeling this leadership contest is moving further into a parallel realm, where public services are functioning brilliantly, Levelling Up has been accomplished, debt is under control and our society has discovered the secret of eternal youth.”

Essential reading

• Sean O’Grady, The Independent: I’m a grown man – I watched the Lionesses win against Germany and wept
• Sadiq Khan, The Independent: We need to rediscover the inclusive national spirit of the 2012 London Olympics
• Nick Cohen, The Spectator: Sunak and Truss have no answer to the big problem facing the West
• Mohamed Adow, The Independent: Richest Commonwealth countries must do more to tackle climate change

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