Liz Truss plans could cost £50bn a year, and will ‘fail to help poorest cope’

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss’s emergency tax and spending pledges could cost upwards of £50bn a year, with experts warning they will fail to help the worst-off deal with the rising cost of living.

Truss, the strong favourite to be the next prime minister, has promised to cancel the national insurance rise, scrap a planned increase in corporation tax, spend more on defence, and remove green levies on energy bills for households and businesses – all of which would cost billions. She has also suggested boosting freeports, which would entail tax cuts for business, and mooted an increase in the married tax allowance.

The foreign secretary has said her plans for tax cuts could cost £30bn but economists said the real figure was likely to be considerably higher. A Guardian analysis of Truss’s tax and spending policies during the campaign found the figure could top £50bn a year, while Labour said the Tory leadership campaign was full of “fantasy economics and unfunded announcements”.

Truss is refusing to commit to any increase in benefits or further rebates on energy bills to help the poorest struggling in the middle of the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

Truss’s key ally Brandon Lewis repeatedly refused on Monday to commit to any further measures to help the most vulnerable with their bills. The energy price cap is now forecast to rise above £3,000.

Over the weekend, Truss said she would “do things in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts”, although her team later insisted this had been misinterpreted and she could look at further measures.

Truss’s insistence on further tax cuts brought in through an emergency budget in mid-September appears designed to appeal to Tory members, with polls suggesting she is