Cut waste and tax to stabilise the economy

WITH Britain still struggling to claw its way out of recession, and motorists and businesses being hit by punishing increases in the cost of petrol and diesel, George Osborne is under huge pressure to cut taxes in next month’s Budget.

Yet the Chancellor is signalling that he cannot do so, arguing that the government has ‘run out of money’ and that ‘all the money was spent in the good years’.

Up to a point, Mr Osborne. Yes, Labour’s reckless spending spree has left the country £1trillion in debt.

But, as a Tory Chancellor surely knows, it’s perfectly possible to fund cuts in taxes or fuel duty by making reductions in still bloated state spending.

In a hugely perceptive analysis, a group of Tory backbenchers yesterday pointed out that, even after what the BBC repeatedly calls the ‘savage’ cuts, total government expenditure in 2014/15 will still only be at the same level as 2009.

As one MP put it: ‘I did not notice the world fall in when we had those spending levels, or the fabric of Britain collapse.’ The MPS argue there is plenty more fat to be trimmed – and, looking at the examples of egregious waste highlighted by the Mail every day, it seems difficult to disagree. Mr Osborne should have the courage to say that – far from being a matter of great ‘sorrow’ – it’s ‘morally right’ to spend and tax less. Families spend their money far more wisely than the state. Cutting taxes helps to create wealth and jobs, gets people off the dole and eases the burden on families faced, as we reveal today, with the highest fuel tax in the EU.

In the longer-term, it also leads to the Treasury having more – not less – in its coffers. Meanwhile, drivers will wonder what happened to the Tories’ promise, made in opposition, to introduce a ‘fair fuel stabiliser’ to keep pump prices down when the cost of oil is high.

The fact is that drivers are now paying almost twice as much to fill up as at the height of the fuel protests in 2000.

Such escalating costs are threatening t o have a devastating effect on employment and the fragile economic recovery.

The question is not whether the country can afford to have a fuel stabiliser. It’s whether we can possibly afford not to.