Tories want to cut taxes before the next election but inflation has to come down first, Hunt says ahead of major speech

TORIES want to cut taxes before the next election but inflation has to come down much further first, Jeremy Hunt said today.

Ahead of his major speech at Tory Party conference in Manchester, the Chancellor insisted slashing record rates now would “compromise” the fight against spiralling prices.

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Jeremy Hunt at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, ahead of his major speech on the economy[/caption]

He said: “I don’t think it’s going to be possible to do any big tax cuts, on the basis first of all of the public finances as we see them… but also it would compromise our battle against inflation.

“No tax cuts are possible in a substantial tax way at the moment, so it’s not just inheritance tax, it’s income tax, it’s all the different tax cuts that people look at.

“If we start having big tax cuts it would be inflationary.”

On the second day of the annual gathering of the Tory tribes, the spotlight will largely be on Britain’s ailing economy.

Mr Hunt will use a keynote conference speech to set out his plans to turn the tides and boost growth.

He’ll announce a crack down on benefits claimants refusing to find a job as 100,000 people leave the workforce each year for a life on handouts.

The Chancellor will today warn that the system is heading in the “wrong direction” since the pandemic in getting people clocking on.

It comes as Ministers step up their efforts to ‘make work pay’ by boosting UK productivity.

He will attack Labour saying they would even remove incentives to work.

He is also announcing the national living wage will rise to at least £11 per hour which will benefit two million of the country’s lowest paid.

Mr Hunt will say: “I am incredibly proud to live in a country where, as Churchill said, there’s a ladder everyone can climb but also a safety net below which no-one falls.

“But paying for that safety net is a social contract that depends on fairness to those in work alongside compassion to those who are not.”

Meanwhile, Liz Truss and her allies on the backbenchers will host a rally calling on Rishi Sunak to “Make Britain Grow Again”.

The ex-PM will implore her successor to slash corporation taxes from 25% to 19%.

She’ll also hit out at the increasing size of the state and the tax burden being at its highest since the Second World War.

Ms Truss will tell her “growth coalition” followers: “Ahead of this year’s autumn statement, we must make the Conservative Party the party of business once again, by getting corporation tax back down to 19%.

“This is how we make Britain grow again. It is free businesses that will get us there, not the Treasury, not the government and not the state.

“Only free businesses can get Britain out of its 25-year economic stagnation.

“Only free businesses can create the economic growth and tax revenues on which our public services rely.”