Yesterday’s announcement that the UK has joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership brought with it a unique sense of unity within the Conservative party, with very different Tory factions praising the new trade bloc. But yesterday is behind us. Now it’s back to business as usual.
Today ushers in the corporation tax hikes that Rishi Sunak first announced as chancellor back in 2021. The rise – from 19 per cent to 25 per cent for the largest companies – is, if anything, more divisive today than it was two years ago, as the decision was fiercely debated during the leadership election last year and then scrapped by Liz Truss – only to be reinstated weeks later by now-chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
I find this debate more interesting than most because it’s not your normal political clash: there is a genuine battle of ideas taking place over this hike, which is summed up in this graph from the Spectator’s Data Hub below.
Until recently, Tory party policy on corporation tax was focused on the blue and red lines in this graph, and the fervent belief that they have an inverse relationship.
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