What Tory MPs want from today’s Budget

Jeremy Hunt’s most important Budget announcement today won’t be something that’ll take effect in the next few hours or weeks. What Tory MPs are looking for above everything else is a commitment to reducing the tax burden and to the Conservative party going into the next election as a low-tax party. They have largely accepted Hunt and Rishi Sunak’s arguments that big tax cuts can’t come yet, and instead are calling for a ‘do no harm’ Budget. 

The trouble is that their definition of ‘do no harm’ includes not pressing ahead with the planned rise in corporation tax from 19 to 25 per cent. The Chancellor is expected to defend that rise when he speaks today, arguing that the decisions the government has taken so far have delivered ‘stability and sound money’. 

The Chancellor is going to try to soften the blow by announcing businesses can offset the entire cost of investments in infrastructure against their profits.