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Key Events (3)Rishi Sunak (4)Liz Truss (3)Nadhim Zahawi (2)Sam Bowman (1)Andrew Sparrow (1)
Truss pledges to ‘liberate British agriculture’ through deregulation
Liz Truss has promised to “liberate British food and farming” to improve the country’s food security and “do away with burdensome EU regulations and red tape” if she becomes prime minister.
The Conservative leadership candidate did not go into too much detail about which laws she would abolish, but promised to address the agricultural labor shortage with a short-term expansion of the seasonal workers scheme.
It comes after a recent government report warned that labor shortages “caused by Brexit and exacerbated by the pandemic” were hitting the food and farming sector hard, often forcing farmers to leave the rotten fruit in the fields and to slaughter healthy pigs.
Truss said he would work to address long-term skills shortages and barriers to the adoption of labor-saving technologies.
He also promised to replace EU legislation that restricts the development of agricultural infrastructure and technology, including the use of agricultural drones and precision breeding technologies.
Sunak’s latest political pledge was described as “another U-turn” by a Truss campaign source, after the former chancellor recently pledged to cut VAT on energy bills, a policy which refuse at your expense.
A Truss campaign source said it was “shameful” that Sunak had raised taxes instead of cutting them as chancellor and “the public and members of the Conservative Party can see through these flip-flops and spins”. .
People “need tax cuts in seven weeks, not seven years,” the source said.
Asked about accusations that he is a “backbencher”, Sunak argued that the government “has found itself on the wrong side of a very serious ethical problem”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said:
I won’t comment specifically on what others mean, but I will address the broader statement they relate to, because I think there is a risk that people will look at the last few months of the government with a slight lift. -tinted glasses on how it really was.
Because it wasn’t working as it should, and crucially the government was on the wrong side of a very serious ethical problem and, for me, it was also going down the wrong economic path, and so in the end over 60 MPs. at the last count, I think, I resigned from the Government, of which I, after much deliberation and months of being Prime Minister, was one of them.
Here’s a bit more from Rishi Sunak, who was previously speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Asked about tax cut spending and the NHS deal, Sunak replied:
We can do both, so if you look at the projections for the economy as it stands, it is perfectly affordable to keep cutting income tax over time while increasing public spending at a disciplined level and reduce our debt.
He dismissed accusations by his successor as chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, of being an “advocate” for the economy as “funnier”.
Sunak added:
It’s my opponent in this contest who wants to stick with the failed orthodoxy of having these ultra-low corporate tax rates and, you know what, they don’t work to increase business investment in this country; we’ve been trying for a decade. .
Sunak promises to remove 4 p. of income tax in seven years
Rishi Sunak has pledged to take out 4 p. of income tax in seven years if he becomes prime minister, in a last-ditch bid to win over members of the Tory party as postal ballots begin to hit the counters.
The former chancellor insisted his “radical but realistic” plan was consistent with his record in office and his leadership campaign, despite heavily criticizing his rival for promising “morally wrong” tax and spending plans that would increase the indebtedness
Reduce the basic rate by 20p. from the pound to 16 p. it would mean a 20% tax cut, the “biggest income tax cut in thirty years,” Sunak claimed.
He said the 20% cut would be financed by “additional tax revenue generated by projected economic growth”, and pledged not to increase public debt to cover the cost.
Sunak’s proposed plan to cut income tax to 16p by the end of the next parliament would cost around £6bn a year. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said his income tax proposal was “perfectly affordable” and that he wanted to cut income tax in a “responsible” way by ensuring that could pay, and it does so together with the economy. growth
Sunak added:
I don’t think he’s embarking on an excessive borrowing spree at a time when inflation and interest rates are already rising.
Updated at 10.33 BST
Nadhim Zahawi formally supports Liz Truss
Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, has formally backed Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race as Tory party members start receiving their ballots for the final leadership vote today.
Zahawi became the latest senior Tory to throw his weight behind the front-runner, praising Truss’s “booster” economic approach to The Daily Telegraph and saying he would “overturn outdated economic orthodoxy and steer our economy in a conservative way.”
Zahawi wrote in the paper:
Liz understands that the status quo is not an option in times of crisis. To quote the excellent economist Sam Bowman, we need an “enhancing” attitude to the economy, not a “destroying” one, to address cost-of-living issues and challenges on the world stage.
Liz will overturn outdated economic orthodoxy and run our economy in a conservative way.
Welcome to today’s Politics live blog. Today I will be covering Andrew Sparrow. Drop me a line if you have any questions or think I’ve missed something. My email is leonie.chao-fong@theguardian.com.
Updated at 10.33 BST