Sunak changes his tune on tax cuts

Tax cuts are around the corner. That was the message from Rishi Sunak when he addressed hacks this morning in a speech on the economy. Ahead of Wednesday’s Autumn Statement, Sunak said that, after he achieved his target of halving inflation, his government is now able to enter ‘the next phase’ of its plan to grow the economy – and cut taxes.

Of course, how much of a role the government really played in bringing down inflation is debatable (it’s largely down to global factors outside of Sunak’s control). But the practical effect of meeting the target is that Sunak now feels able to begin reducing the tax burden.

In a sign that Sunak wants this to be part of a wider economic narrative, he insisted his government can only ‘turn our attention to cutting taxes’ now because of difficult decisions ministers had made on public sector pay restraint: ‘That’s why we can now move on to the next phase of our economic plan and turn our attention to cutting taxes.