Sunak 180 degree turn with tax breaks?

The Conservative candidate, who is trailing in the polls among party members, has promised to abolish VAT on electricity bills.

The UK is not at its best. Historically high inflation, ever-increasing cost of living, train strikes that are becoming a habit and even getting off to the summer holidays is a tricky business with airports underperforming. Above all, there is also a resigned prime minister.

That’s why almost everyone is concerned with his replacements, namely Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, who are clearly fighting harder every day to win the Tory leadership and ultimately the Prime Minister’s chair.

The Sunak promise on energy bills

The former Minister of Finance is accused today of making a 180-degree turn in this effort before even taking office, as in yesterday’s second tet-a-tet debate he promised to abolish the 5% VAT that has been on energy bills since October and for one year .

As he added, the specific “temporary and targeted” measure of tax abolition “will save an average family £160 a year” without burdening the state budget with new borrowing since it will cost the government around £4.3 billion. A condition for the measure to come into effect is that the upper limit on bills (price cap) exceeds 3,000 pounds for the average household, which is expected to happen according to the forecasts.

But it is true that the announcement contradicts his attitude so far not to proceed with tax reductions until the country’s inflation returns to normal levels, while at the same time it is recalled that Mr. Sunak had rejected the same proposal 6 months ago, from his position Minister of Finance, when he was put on the carpet by the Labor party.

So today supporters of his opponent Liz Truss are talking about a “resounding U-turn as she has for weeks in the succession race portrayed others’ aspirations for tax cuts as unethical and unrealistic”.

At the same time it is a fact that Rishi Sunak, although he is ahead in the suitability preferences of Tory MPs and a section of the public, is far behind in the polls among the members of the Conservative Party who will choose the final winner.

Yesterday’s episodic debate

Liz Truss, whose birthday was yesterday, turned her attention to yesterday’s debate and the effectiveness of the police by pledging to reduce crime by 20%. Apparently, having more confidence that he has already won the favor of members in the field of economics.

Nevertheless, and while yesterday’s Sun newspaper debate on the new TalkTV channel was developing more calmly compared to the tensions observed in the previous one, it was interrupted unexpectedly after the fainting of the journalist Kate McCann who moderated the debate. It is even pointed out that she had been asked to replace her colleague Harry Cole, who canceled his presence at the last minute due to covid.

So yesterday there was no complete picture of the positions of the two candidates or a final conclusion of winner and loser with the last picture of the viewers after half an hour being the shocked Liz Truss rushing to help the journalist.

Zoe Katzagiannakis, London

Source: Deutsche Welle