How Liz Truss dug in over pledge to axe corporation tax rise

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss put adherence to principle at the heart of her bid for the leadership of the Conservative party, often using her support for cutting corporation tax to illustrate a wider preference for letting people and businesses keep more of their own money.

However, now the policy has been mooted as one of those that could be chopped to help fill a £65bn black hole of unfunded revenue loss in the mini-budget.

These are the pledges Truss and some of her most senior supporters made during the course of her campaign and premiership so far:

As she squeaked on to the ballot paper in the final round of voting by MPs, Truss told the Spectator she did not want to increase corporation tax because “we need to attract the investment to drive business and growth”.

Patrick Minford, who Truss cited in a radio interview as an economist that believed tax cuts would not fuel inflation, told BBC Newsnight the planned rise in corporation tax to 25% was “very damaging” and would “stop growth in its tracks”.

The following day, he told GB News that putting up the tax “would damage growth and innovation by all these entrepreneurial companies”.

In a press release, Truss’s campaign savaged her rival Rishi Sunak for standing by the planned rise to corporation tax he announced as chancellor, calling him the “first chancellor since Labour chancellor Denis Healey [in 1974] to raise corporation tax”.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was promoted to business secretary after the campaign, told LBC: “I think increasing corporation tax at this point when you need the economy to be growing is a really rotten policy.”

Another cabinet supporter – later to become deputy prime minister – also stood against the rise. Thérèse Coffey told GB News that “we need to be putting more