11 Conservative MPs have now entered the running to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and prime minister of the United Kingdom.
The timetable for the leadership contest is to be set out by the 1922 Committee later on Monday (July 11). The full list of candidates so far is as follows:
- Foreign secretary, Liz Truss
- Former equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch
- Attorney general, Suella Braverman
- Foreign Office minister, Rehman Chishti
- Former cabinet minister, Jeremy Hunt
- Former health secretary, Sajid Javid
- Trade minister, Penny Mordaunt
- Transport secretary, Grant Shapps
- Ex-chancellor, Rishi Sunak
- Backbench MP, Tom Tugendhat
- Incumbent chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi
Many of the candidates have launched their campaigns with pledges to alleviate the tax burden on businesses and households, with many Conservatives having aired their discontent at tax increases under Boris Johnson.
Foreign secretary, Liz Truss - the latest to declare that she will stand - has promised to reverse the National Insurance increase, cut corporation tax, and overhaul business rates, as well as taking “immediate action” to help households better adjust to rising prices.
The former health secretary and ex-foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has also pledged to create a “lower tax environment to help businesses get off the ground.”
Hunt said that it would be possible to cut corporation tax and “get the British economy going” within the bounds of the UK’s fiscal rules if spread over a five-year period.
Hunt added that this would continue to bring the national debt down “as a proportion of our output”, a move which he felt was a “moral” one.
“We shouldn't be cutting taxes if we're loading up debts on future generations,” he said.
Sajid Javid, who last week resigned as health secretary, wants to cancel next year's planned corporation tax rise and gradually reduce it from 19 per cent to 15 per cent at a rate of one pence per year.
The Bromsgrove MP has also said that he will bring forward the upcoming one pence cut to income tax and reverse the National Insurance increase.
Backbencher Tom Tugendhat said that he would be “looking to lower taxes across every aspect of society” to achieve growth by “taking the brakes off the economy”. This includes by addressing the National Insurance hike, which he referred to as a “tax on jobs”.
The need for lower taxes was also echoed by Rehman Chishti in his campaign launch, which began over the weekend.
Newly appointed chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, told the Telegraph that “nothing is off the table” when it came to bring taxes down, as he set out his own leadership bid.
However, Zahawi’s predecessor, Rishi Sunak, is a notable exception. He is the only one of the candidates to have talked down the idea of immediate tax cuts coming into force, urging caution over bringing taxes down prior to public finances getting better.
Indeed, questions have been raised toward the other leadership hopefuls over how tax cuts could be accounted for within government spending plans.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, warned that tax cuts would almost certainly require higher borrowing or public sector pay cuts and that government “need to be clear about consequences.”
Photo by UK Prime Minister - https://twitter.com/10DowningStreet/status/1154315968312745984, OGL 3, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=80886052
