No 10 refuses to back minister’s back-to-work tax cut suggestion

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said reducing the number of economically inactive people back to pre-pandemic levels could lead to a tax cut.

Mel Stride (Jordan Pettitt/PA) (PA Wire)

No 10 has refused to endorse the Work and Pensions Secretary’s suggestion that getting people back into work after Covid could result in a pre-election tax giveaway for voters.

Mel Stride said cutting the number of economically inactive people back down to pre-pandemic levels could hand the Chancellor the fiscal room he requires for a 2p cut to the basic level of tax.

A Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recognised that increasing the UK’s labour market numbers could help boost the economy, but it was for the Chancellor to decide on tax matters.