Will the Tory hopefuls deliver on their tax promises?

Rather unsurprisingly, the bulk of MPs who have declared their leadership bids so far are promising lower taxes. Also unsurprisingly, very few details are on offer explaining how they’d do it.

In Nadhim Zahawi’s early pitch to the public — he is expected to share more tomorrow — he’s asserted that ‘taxes for individuals, families and business need to be lower – and will be on my watch.’ Tom Tugendhat’s ‘clean start’ manifesto made a similar point: ‘Taxes, bluntly, are too high,’ he asserted, ‘and there is an emerging consensus across the party that they must come down.’ Penny Mordant’s leadership pitch today promises ‘new economic vision’ — something we certainly need after two and half years of Johnson’s economic cake-ism and tax hikes, yet completely absent of any information about what that new direction might be.

Many of these pledges are both promises to the public as well as veiled attacks on the betting market’s current frontrunner, Rishi Sunak, who is in the tricky spot of explaining to Tory MPs — and soon possibly the party’s grassroots — why the tax burden crept to a 72-year high under his watch.