Mordaunt challenged over promises of ‘self-funding’ tax cuts
PENNY MORDAUNT’S tax cuts would be “self-funding”, her policy chief has said, as pressure mounts on her campaign to explain how it would pay for its pledges.
George Freeman, the former science minister, told the BBC that her tax cuts would effectively pay for themselves as they would “put money in people’s pockets”.
Ms Mordaunt has outlined a series of tax cuts including unfreezing the thresholds for basic and middle earners, halving fuel duty, and targeted tax cuts for job creators.
But Mr Freeman was challenged by the BBC’S Victoria Derbyshire over his claim that the cuts would be “selffunding”.
Derbyshire said: “What, all three of them – unfreezing the tax threshold, targeted tax cuts and halving fuel duty – are all self-funding? Oh my goodness, you know this does not make sense.”
But Mr Freeman insisted the “real point” is that “we are on the edge of a recession”, so putting “money in people’s pockets” will ensure they “spend and keep the economy turning over”.
Rival camps claim Ms Mordaunt has failed to answer how her tax cuts will be funded and that she is weak on the detail of her economic proposals.
Allies of Liz Truss have been trying to position her as the candidate best placed to offer a credible alternative vision to Rishi Sunak on the economy.
The latest ballot among MPS yesterday provided further indication that Ms Mordaunt’s momentum in the race is stalling, as she failed to win more votes since Monday and has lost a vote in the past 24 hours.
But yesterday night, members of Ms Mordaunt’s campaign insisted that she is “raring for the fight”. The source added: “The grassroots will kick off if she doesn’t get into the final two, they are absolutely gagging for her.”
Meanwhile, Ms Mordaunt explained to this newspaper her thoughts on health policy, which involve letting more overseas dentists qualify to work in the UK to plug gaps in the workforce.
“Getting access to a dentist... seeing a GP or getting a blood test result back is now a real ordeal,” she said. “We must ensure in short order that access to healthcare is opened up.”
She said she would reform the Overseas Registration Examination to speed up the process and encourage qualified dentists to come to the UK and would relax restrictions on foreign dentist qualifications.
Ms Mordaunt has pledged to cut VAT at fuel pumps by 50 per cent until at least April 2023, which she has said will be paid for by the increased VAT revenues coming in as a result of inflation.
She has also promised to raise basic and middle earners tax thresholds by inflation “to let families keep more of their hard-earned money”.
A series of targeted tax breaks will be drawn up to benefit job creators, according to her campaign.