Conservative Party bigwigs looking to take over from recently ousted Boris Johnson have suddenly begun pushing for “red meat” tax cuts, despite previous talk of having to hike charges over COVID.
Britain’s governing party seems to have reset to the beginning of its perpetual cycle of promising tax cuts and then raising taxes with the arrival of the leadership contest. Despite the first half of 2022 being dominated by talk of raising taxes and keeping spending allegedly “responsible” in the hopes of paying for the colossal cost of Boris Johnson’s hardline COVID lockdowns, those now jostling for the top job of Conservative Party leader and UK Prime Minister are now promising massive tax cuts and increased spending.
The sudden dash to slash taxes is reminiscent of Boris Johnson’s use of “red meat” policies to win over the public during times of controversy, though history now shows that while the Tories are very good at promising to lower taxes, they have nevertheless remained high enough to cause significant difficulties for the British middle-class.
According to reports by The Telegraph, The Times, and The Guardian, Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Health Committee chairman Jeremy Hunt, Attorney General Suella Braverman, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch have all promised tax cuts of some sort, while further candidates still have sworn to reverse the upcoming hike in payroll tax in the country.
“Overseeing the highest tax burden since 1949 is not the Conservative way. We cannot tax our way into prosperity,” The Telegraph reports Nadhim Zahawi as saying regarding the current tax situation. “The burden of tax is simply too high.”
However, despite this raft of promises, these same politicians operated relatively contentedly under a Johnson government that was pushing to raise taxes — despite swearing they would do otherwise — with race frontrunner Rishi Sunak in particular being the architect of the much-maligned payroll tax hike.
To make matters worse, it appears that it is the middle-class that has up until now taken the brunt of the damage from Conservative Party tax hikes and spending changes, with The Times estimating that two-parent families earning an overall £120,000 per year are now £5,648 worse off when compared with the period before the Tories took power in 2010.
“The tax burden is at a 70-year high, and it’s not hard to see why after a decade of tax increases,” the publication reports Danielle Boxall of the Taxpayers’ Alliance as saying. “All too often we’ve seen Conservative chancellors give with one hand but take back a good deal more with the other, making taxes the biggest bill hardworking households and struggling businesses face.”
While appealing to future tax cuts — real or otherwise — has been a common way for Tory party hopefuls to try and win over party support, other strategies have also been employed.
Some have pushed for more military spending, with Nadhim Zahawi and Grant Shapps for example both taking the hawkish position in the apparent hope of deterring foreign aggressors.
Meanwhile, others have hinted at relaxing Britain’s speech controls and overall militant progressive impositions, with Kemi Badenoch, in particular, arguing that the UK needed to move past its propensity for legislating social interaction if it wants to keep pace with rival powers.
“Rather than legislate for hurt feelings as we risk doing with the Online Safety Bill, we must strengthen our democratic culture at a time when democratic values are under assault from without and within,” the British citizen of Nigerian heritage said.
“We need to reinvigorate the case for free speech, free markets and the institutions that defend a free people because our values and our ideas are too precious not to fight for with all our heart,” she continued. “One of my heroes is the American thinker Thomas Sowell, who said that ‘if you want to help people, tell them the truth; if you want to help yourself, tell them what they want to hear’.”
Badenoch has since been denounced by leftists as a politician who enables “white supremacy”.