Rishi Sunak says his ‘mission’ is cutting taxes ahead of spring statement

‘My priority over the rest of this Parliament is to cut people’s taxes. That is my mission,’ Mr Sunak said.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said goal over the rest of the Government’s term is to cut taxes, ahead of his spring statement on Wednesday (Justin Tallis/PA) (PA Wire)

The Chancellor says his goal over the rest of the Government’s term is to cut taxes, ahead of his spring statement on Wednesday.

“My priority over the rest of this Parliament is to cut people’s taxes. That is my mission,” Mr Sunak said.

Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Mr Sunak alluded to a realignment of spending, rather than any big new allocations.

“Let’s not be spending any more money – let’s make sure the money we’re spending is spent really well,” he told the paper.

“That’s got to be the focus, because otherwise it’s hard to cut taxes.”

Mr Sunak will make his spring statement – an economic plan in response to the latest economic forecasts – on Wednesday amid spiralling cost of living and inflation issues.

With the war in Ukraine and the UK’s sanctions on Russia worsening those issues, Mr Sunak warned his statement would include “challenging” projections.

It is unclear whether any changes will be made to the national insurance hike due to commence next month, which Labour says will only worsen the cost of living impacts.

Mr Sunak also told the paper he supported a exploring a “safe way” to lift the ban on fracking for shale gas in the UK amid the current crisis.

It comes as the Sunday Telegraph reported the Prime Minister and Mr Sunak clashed over the latter’s opposition to a push to increase the number of nuclear power plants in the UK.

Meanwhile, also on Saturday, the Treasury and Downing Street together announced a “cross-Whitehall efficiency crackdown” which it says will cut £5.5 billion worth of waste and funnel the savings into vital public services.

The Treasury said the annual NHS efficiency target would be doubled to 2.2% as part of the crackdown.

It projected the measure would free up £4.75 billion to fund NHS priority areas over the next three years.

The Treasury said the savings would be made through measures including the digitisation of services, improvements on surgical hubs and digital tools to cut time spent on admin tasks.

“The current level of waste across government is simply not acceptable – which is why we’re doubling down on wasteful spending and launching an efficiency drive to make £5.5 billion worth of savings,” Mr Sunak said.

Another £800 million was predicted to come from a review of “Quangos” or arm’s lengths bodies – publicly funded but not entirely Government-controlled organisations.