Ex-Foreign Secretary William Hague, who led the Conservative Party from 1997 to 2001, suggested the Iron Lady would not have made “dramatic” tax cuts at this point. His comments come just days after Boris Johnson announced he would resign as prime minister and leader of the Tory party pending a leadership contest.
Candidates vying to replace Mr Johnson have made a plethora of pledges to cut taxes in a bid to ease the burden on British families amid a cost of living crisis.
However, ex-chancellor Rishi Sunak has suggested that tax cuts will not be introduced until later and that the government should not lull voters to sleep about the economic difficulties ahead by telling them “comforting fairy tales”.
By contrast, Secretary of State Liz Truss pledged to scrap the increase in national insurance and cut taxes “from day one” to help ease the pressure of the crisis on the cost of living.
Former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt went so far as to pledge to cut corporate taxes to 15 percent, in a move that would reverse Mr Sunak’s planned hike from 19 to 25 percent.
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Mr Hague, who preceded Mr Sunak as MP for Richmond in Yorkshire, wrote in the Times why Margaret Thatcher would not have sided with the majority of candidates in the ongoing leadership contest.
He said: “Aspiring Prime Ministers are falling over each other to promise tax cuts. ‘Day one’ cuts, cuts that in some cases amount to almost £40 billion; all intended as a blueprint for growth and as a reassurance to a to be authentic Tory.
“However, these dramatic pledges, made with no or unspecified commitments to curb spending, contradict how the most successful Tory governments have approached taxation.
“They are hostages of fortune that would reduce the flexibility needed to respond to events as yet unknown.
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“But they did so while stubbornly defending a position of fiscal strength. Observers were shocked when the 1981 budget, in a deep recession, delivered hefty tax hikes and held back personal tax deductions despite high inflation.
“The biggest tax cuts came much later, in 1988, when the overall budget was in surplus and debts were being paid back.”
Notably, Mrs Thatcher raised VAT from just eight percent to 15 percent less than a year after the Conservative party won the 1979 general election.
However, in what could be considered support from Mr Sunak, Hague concluded: “A whole host of tax promises should not be the dividing line in this leadership election.
“But if that’s the line, Sunak is on the right side of it.”