Cut corporation tax to Irish levels if we mean Brexit, Johnson urges
Former PM calls on Sunak to turbocharge investment as he claims deal with EU does not take back control
BORIS JOHNSON has urged Rishi Sunak to cut corporation tax to “Irish levels” in a fresh challenge to the Prime Minister.
The levy is expected to increase from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in the spring Budget, but that has faced a backlash from Conservatives and business leaders.
Mr Johnson was prime minister when the corporation tax rise was first announced as part of the March 2021 Budget, scheduled to start in April.
However, he used his first major European speech since being ousted from Downing Street to call on Mr Sunak, his former chancellor, to match Ireland’s headline rate of 12.5 per cent.
He told the Global Soft Power Summit in London: “There’s no point now in just emulating the high-tax, highspend, low-growth European model.
“We should think not about raising corporation tax but cutting corporation tax to Irish levels or lower and really turbocharging investment to drive levelling up across the whole country, really showing the world what they wanted to see from 2016 onwards… that we are different now, because this is a Brexit government or this is nothing.”
Last weekend, three former Tory chancellors – Lord Hammond, Kwasi Kwarteng and George Osborne – warned it would be a mistake for the Government to proceed with the policy and Priti Patel, the former home secretary, said “now is not the time”.
In his speech yesterday, Mr Johnson also expressed concern about the new deal Mr Sunak reached with the European Union this week.
Reflecting on signing the Northern Ireland Protocol, he admitted he thought trade barriers “would not be onerous” and muttered: “It’s all my fault, I fully accept responsibility.”
But despite conceding Mr Sunak had the “momentum” over the new agreement, which most Tory MPS are expected to back, Mr Johnson added: “We must be clear about what is really going on here. This is not about the UK taking back control. This is really a version of the solution that was being offered to Liz Truss last year when she was foreign secretary.
“This is the EU graciously unbending to allow the UK to do whatever we want in our own country – not by our laws, but by theirs.
“I’m going to find it very difficult to vote for something like this myself, because I believe we should have done something different, no matter how much plaster came off the ceiling in Brussels… Brexit is nothing if we in this country do not do things differently.”
Mr Johnson said voters felt “particularly dismayed” about levels of illegal migration as he suggested the UK “hadn’t done enough” post-brexit.
In an apparent swipe at Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, he said: “I just want to point out for accuracy when I stepped down we were only a handful of points behind the Labour Party, I’m just saying that.”
In the wide-ranging speech, he also warned against “bowdlerising” Roald Dahl books after hundreds of edits were made to the works. The publisher Puffin later backed down and now Dahl’s original texts will be published alongside revised versions.
Despite insisting dangers to free speech could not be compared to authoritarian states, Mr Johnson said: “I’m conscious people in Britain today are worried by the sense that they are being muzzled. And people should be vigilant about freedom of speech when we’re bowdlerising Roald Dahl.”
Mr Johnson also argued the Elgin Marbles should not be sent back to Greece amid reports that George Osborne, the British Museum chairman, had agreed to repatriate the antiquities.
♦ Labour wants to see a closer trading relationship with the EU, Rachel Reeves said yesterday. The shadow chancellor said the fact that Mr Sunak had been able to reach a deal on Northern Ireland proved that Brussels was open to negotiations. She said: “We do want a closer trading relationship [with the EU]. All the evidence shows that the deal the Government secured has cost us exports for British firms and has also reduced investment into the UK.”