Tax cuts are a battleground in the Tory leadership race – but will they make any difference?

The idea that tax cuts are some sort of magic tool that will painlessly boost growth and therefore pay for themselves is patently nonsense, writes Hamish McRae

Rishi Sunak has positioned himself as the grown-up candidate who looks at the reality of the nation’s finances (Getty)

Tax cuts when you had a fiscal deficit of more than 6 per cent of GDP last year? One of the depressing things about the race to replace Boris Johnson as Tory leader and hence prime minister is the way most of the candidates trot out tax cuts as part of their agenda.

Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt are calling for that. So are Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch. Even Nadhim Zahawi, the current chancellor, is on message here. He is the one person who can do something about this and we may even get a reversal of his predecessor’s plan to increase corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent on Monday.

All this is in sharp contrast to the report by the Office for Budget Responsibility last week calling for tax increases to stop the national debt from soaring out of control in the longer term. Oh, dear.