Priority is to cut taxes, says Rishi Sunak before spring statement

theguardian.com:

Rishi Sunak has promised that tax increases are “done”, as he dropped a heavy hint that he is preparing measures to tackle the rising cost of living in next week’s spring statement.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said this week that Sunak had announced more tax rises in two years – worth 2% of GDP – than Gordon Brown did in a decade.

With the rise of 1.25 percentage points in national insurance contributions still due to come in April, the chancellor was keen to signal to Tory activists that there were no more nasty surprises ahead.

Speaking at the Conservatives’ spring conference, he said: “I made this very clear at the budget in the autumn: that is done. We’ve made the difficult decisions that we have to make. My priority going forward is to cut taxes.”

After weeks of mounting pressure for the Treasury to cushion the impact of rising prices, Sunak said he had “sympathy” for people struggling in the face of “global inflationary forces” and would consider taking action “where we can make a difference”.

He is widely believed to be looking at a cut in fuel duty, perhaps of 5p, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the cost of fuel at the pumps soaring.

Such a measure would be enthusiastically welcomed by many backbench Conservatives, but some campaigners are warning against it. Analysis by the New Economics Foundation (Nef) shows just 7% of the benefit goes to the poorest fifth of households.

The thinktank found that one-third of the savings would accrue to the wealthiest fifth of households. In absolute terms it would be worth an average of £1.80 a month to households in the bottom 20% of earners, and £8.20 a month to households in the top 20%.

Alex Chapman, a senior researcher at Nef, said: “If your objective is to