Tories face backlash from voters if taxes increase

THE proportion of people unlikely to vote Conservative if Boris Johnson raises taxes has increased sharply, a poll for The Sunday Telegraph suggests.

Forty-two per cent of voters now say they would be less likely to support the Tories if the Government raises taxes between now and the next election.

The figure marks a 10 percentage point increase since October.

The survey comes as the Prime Minister and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, face pressure to scrap the intended National Insurance rise of 1.25 percentage points beginning in April.

Redfield & Wilton Strategies, which conducted the new poll, said the results showed that the Conservatives are now associated with tax rises among a “clear majority” of the public.

This is despite Mr Johnson promising at the 2019 election not to increase income tax, VAT or national insurance.

Asked which of the two largest parties they associated with advocating lower taxes, 29 per cent of respondents said Labour, compared with 19 per cent Conservative, with 27 per cent choosing “neither” and seven per cent “both”.

Meanwhile, when asked if they associated the current Tories with raising taxes, lowering them or neither, 54 per cent opted for raising, up from 42 per cent in October.

Just 15 per cent said lowering, down three percentage points.

Sir Keir Starmer, who opposes the NI increase, has sought to exploit the issue, ramping up his attack on the “high tax” Mr Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions last week.

Philip van Scheltinga, the director of research at Redfield & Wilton Strategies, said: “The Conservative Party has become the party of tax increases when the public is more anti-tax than ever.”