It’s Rishi’s high-tax strategy that really riles us Tory voters
IT WAS announced yesterday that inflation is running at seven per cent and is expected to peak at 8.7 per cent later this year. Government borrowing increased from 83 per cent of GDP in 2019/20 to 96 per cent of GDP in 2021/22. To make matters worse, people are facing the very real choice between heating their homes or feeding their families. Even the annual pension rise of 3.1 per cent seems utterly pointless with inflation almost double this.
All this dire news has unsurprisingly resulted in one of the worst weeks for Chancellor Rishi Sunak. Mr Sunak, who has overseen the highest rises in taxation for 70 years, has been under fire for his wife’s nondom status.Akshata Murty, who benefits from her stake in her father’s Indian based IT company to the tune of £11.5million, until recently only paid tax on UK earnings but has now voluntarily agreed to pay UK taxes on all of her earnings.
But why does anyone, least of all Tory voters, care about the finances of the Chancellor’s wife? After all, this isn’t 1882, when married women had just been allowed to own and control property in their own right. You could even argue that there are sexist undertones regarding the scrutiny of Ms Murty’s finances. On the face of it, all this outrage is very un-Conservative. Haven’t the Tories always been a pro-business party, favouring low-taxation and property rights?
If that is indeed the case, then it’s clear that criticism of Mr Sunak’s wife is more a reflection of the Chancellor’s personal popularity rather than anger about his wife’s finances.
FOR MANY Conservative voters, myself included, Rishi Sunak is the least Conservative chancellor this country has ever seen. He has not only overseen a rise in
National Insurance contributions but has also decreased the salary cap at which graduates must pay back their student loans. This means that by September next year, young graduates will be left paying thousands more towards their student loans.
At a time when the current cost of living crisis is threatening the biggest decline in living standards since the Second World War, news of Mr Sunak’s wife’s “non-favourable’’ tax status is just a slap in the face. After all, it is no secret that many politicians are wealthy in their own right. Even former Prime Minister David Cameron was allegedly worth £38million. However, with taxes going up for everyone, the last thing we wanted was our politicians worming their way out of paying their fair share. Even if we are not talking of politicians, but their wives.
The criticism levelled at the Chancellor, much from within his own party, shows deep dissatisfaction among the party’s base. Families and businesses are being hit from all sides. Higher taxes and even higher prices have meant that we are seeing rises everywhere; from council tax, to fuel, to food. It is a very real possibility that Mr Sunak’s policies will lead to another ‘Winter of Discontent’ for this country.
So, what has caused this disconnect between the Chancellor and his party’s base? As Baron Bridges argued recently, the Conservative Party is in the grips of an identity crisis.A reality that has been exasperated by the party’s obsession with One Nation Conservatism.
BORIS, who has made it clear that he intends to govern in a way that continues to court the vote of the Red Wall he won over in 2019, is forgetting one thing. His base. And Mr Sunak is following suit. Many, including me, have argued against the ill-fated strategy of becoming a centrist party. After all, it is clear that the 2019 vote was based on Brexit.What is the point of trying to court a one-off vote at the expense of a very dissatisfied base? Moreover, what is the point of a Conservative Party that doesn’t govern conservatively? Everything the Chancellor has done to date shows a clear lack of direction.
Public borrowing has gone up. Spending in the NHS has gone up. Taxes have gone up. Businesses are facing a hike in corporation tax. All evidence would suggest that the Chancellor is a Labour politician in all but name.
So where do we go from here? It is about time for the Chancellor to have a reality check. If the outrage we saw around his wife’s tax status is anything to go by, ignoring your base comes at a very high cost. The Conservative Party needs once again to become the party of low taxes and low regulation. And that starts with a U-turn on Mr Sunak’s unpopular strategy. If not, I’m afraid scrutiny over the Chancellor’s wife finances will be the least of his problems.
‘The Chancellor is a Labour politician in all but name’