Liz Truss pledges to review tax rates amid cost of living crisis

theguardian.com:

Liz Truss has vowed to review all tax rates to help struggling households and businesses through the cost of living crisis, in her latest break from Treasury orthodoxy.

The prime minister’s remarks, on her first foreign trip to the US, pave the way for a radical overhaul of the system that could include looking again at income tax brackets.

In an interview at the top of the Empire State Building on Tuesday, she told the BBC: “We have to look at our tax rates. So corporation tax needs to be competitive with other countries so that we can attract that investment.”

Truss had signalled overnight that further tax cuts could be on the way as she strives to boost economic growth in the face of the biggest economic storm the UK has faced in a generation.

She told reporters on the plane to the US that the “number one thing” she wanted to deliver was economic growth, adding: “Lower taxes lead to economic growth, there is no doubt in my mind about that.”

The prime minister embraced a Reagan-style “trickle-down” approach to the economy throughout the Conservative leadership contest, arguing it was wrong to view all economic policy through the “lens of redistribution”.

However, it puts her on a collision course with Joe Biden, who she will meet for bilateral talks on Wednesday. The US president tweeted: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked. We’re building an economy from the bottom up and middle out.”

In a broadcast round on Tuesday, the prime minister defended her plan to cut national insurance, which has prompted criticism as it benefits the highest earners 250 times more than the poorest, admitting it was of greater value to the rich.

She told Sky News: “I don’t accept this argument that cutting taxes is