Battle for Number 10: From tax to NHS, here are all the promises Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have made

Michiel Willems for City A.M. – 03.08.22

Yesterday, Liz Truss has this morning performed a screeching U-turn on a policy to pay regional public sector workers less than their London counterparts. it came after a severe backlash from Tory MPs and Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen.

The embarrassing move comes as Truss and her rival Rishi Sunak continue to flesh out their policy positions on a range of issues as ballot papers begin to drop on Tories’ doormats.

Over the next few weeks it will be up to Conservative members to decide which of the two will take on the top job in No 10.

The pair have so far navigated two of the summer’s 12 official Tory hustings, where they are seeking to woo voters with their vision for the country. Here we look at their stances on key issues.

Tax and spending

Rishi Sunak: The former chancellor has pitched himself as the fiscally conservative candidate and has criticised his rival’s tax-cutting plans as “comforting fairytales”.

He has promised to “deliver tax cuts that drive growth”, but to do so in a “way that’s responsible”.

As he battled to make up ground on the Foreign Secretary, he pledged to temporarily scrap VAT on energy bills from October if the price cap rises above £3,000 as expected, saving households around £160 at a cost to the Exchequer of around £4.3bn.

And in a last-ditch effort to win over the party faithful before ballots started dropping on their doormats, Mr Sunak vowed to take 4p off income tax within seven years.

Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, has pledged to “start cutting taxes from day one” with a new Budget and Spending Review that would reverse April’s rise in national insurance and next year’s corporation tax hike from 19 per cent to 25 per cent.

Truss has not fully explained how she would fund the £30bn worth of tax cuts she has promised, but previously said they “can be paid for within the existing fiscal envelope”.

Part of her plan is to spread the country’s Covid debt over a longer period of time.

She had also pledged a “war on Whitehall waste” to save £11bn, but her policy proposals were swiftly skewered by a U-turn.

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Battle for Number 10 - From tax to NHS, here are all the promises Liz Truss and Rishi Suna

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Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak