Bold mini-Budget can jolt Tories into life

WHEN Kwasi Kwarteng delivers his miniBudget today, it promises not only to be the most significant fiscal occasion in decades. It might be the moment Conservatism awakens from its coma.

Under recent Tory governments, the party has shifted from free market principles and instead slumped into the big-state Treasury orthodoxy that drove the tax burden to an 80-year high.

Thankfully, the Chancellor and Prime Minister Liz Truss are determined to reenergise the country by taking a more radical approach – turbo-charging growth.

That is why the mini-Budget’s centrepiece is the biggest tax giveaway since the 1980s. Mr Kwarteng will reverse the national insurance hike, scrap the planned rise in corporation tax and cut stamp duty.

And a bonfire of red tape will unlock the shackles on business and accelerate crucial infrastructure projects.

When his predecessor, Nigel Lawson, cut tax rates, productivity soared and the Treasury’s tax take actually went up. Partly as a result, Margaret Thatcher won a third consecutive general election.

Low taxes work – morally and practically. They put more money in people’s pockets, create jobs, and foster a climate where enterprise and wealth creation can thrive.

There will, of course, be relentless shroudwaving from the Left and the BBC, who claim Mr Kwarteng’s audacious agenda merely benefits the rich. But they are wrong, and he must stick doggedly to his guns.

With the country heading into recession, we can’t afford to surrender to the failed economic consensus. The Government must do all in its power to stimulate growth.

If the country becomes more prosperous, everyone gets richer. And the Tories, too, will enjoy a political windfall.