Tories told not to vote against March Budget

Some backbenchers object to tax rises

TORY MPS have been warned by Downing Street that they could lose the party whip if they vote against next week’s Budget, amid suggestions there could be a rebellion over a possible increase to corporation tax.

The warning came yesterday as Tory former chancellor Lord (Philip) Hammond urged Boris Johnson to risk unpopularity by telling the public “some difficult home truths” about the damage the coronavirus pandemic has caused to the economy.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron warned Chancellor Rishi Sunak that tax rises “wouldn’t make any sense at all” as the nation opens back up from lockdown.

No spending or taxation plans have been confirmed ahead of Wednesday’s Budget, but there are suggestions Conservative MPs could rebel if it contains sizeable tax hikes.

The Times reported that officials are considering plans to increase corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent.

The Prime Minister’s press secas retary, Allegra Stratton, told reporters that No 10 would consider votes against the Government’s Budget by Tory MPs as a confidence issue, meaning they could be stripped of the whip.

Mr Cameron, who is no longer an MP, warned against tax rises he defended his own austerity policies, telling US broadcaster CNN: “Today we do face very different circumstances.

“So piling, say, tax increases on top of that before you’ve even opened up the economy wouldn’t make any sense at all.

“I think it’s been right for the Government here in the UK and governments around the world to recognise this is more like a sort of wartime situation.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also said “now is not the time” for tax increases.

Lord Hammond urged the Prime Minister to level with the public amid rising unemployment and the economy being hit by the biggest annual decline on record.

He told the BBC: “My fear is that, as a populist government, giving money away is always easier than collecting it in.”

The life peer, who resigned as chancellor when Mr Johnson became Prime Minister, urged ministers to focus on growth and to ditch “very extravagant” promises from the manifesto.

But he added he was “not sure” the “top leadership” has the “appetite for being unpopular, in order to do the right thing”.