{"id":26216,"date":"2022-10-03T07:18:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T07:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=26216"},"modified":"2022-10-03T07:18:02","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T07:18:02","slug":"liz-truss-no-more-tax-abolishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/10\/03\/liz-truss-no-more-tax-abolishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Liz Truss: No more tax abolishing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Government makes U-turn over proposal to abolish top-rate tax cut after growing backlash over mini-budget<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liz Truss\u2019s government has abandoned its plan to abolish the 45% top rate of income tax in a humiliating U-turn, following a mounting Conservative revolt over the policy and a turbulent reaction from markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a\u00a0tweet, Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed the change, saying: \u201cWe get it, and we have listened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chancellor said the decision to cut tax for people on incomes of \u00a3150,000 or more \u201chas become a distraction from our overriding mission to tackle the challenges facing our country\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He continued: \u201cAs a result, I\u2019m announcing we are not proceeding with the abolition of the 45p tax rate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U-turn comes hours before Kwarteng addresses the Conservative conference in Birmingham. Extracts of his speech briefed overnight showed the chancellor had been planning to hold firm on the tax package, saying: \u201cWe must stay the course. I am confident our plan is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sudden change of course followed a realisation within Downing Street that so many Conservative MPs objected to the policy that it might be voted down in parliament, amid worries from voters about rising mortgage costs as money markets were spooked by the scale of borrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviewed on BBC1\u2019s Breakfast, Kwarteng refused to concede the abolition of the 45p tax rate was a mistake, saying it was taking attention away from policies such as the intervention to limit energy bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I admit is it was a massive distraction on a strong package,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwarteng did, however, say he would \u201ctake responsibility\u201d for the policy, adding: \u201cI\u2019ve said that I\u2019ve listened. I get the reaction. I\u2019ve spoken to lots of people up and down the country. I\u2019ve spoken to constituents. I\u2019ve spoken to MPs and councillors and other people in our political system. But most importantly, I\u2019ve listened to voters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The chancellor said he had \u201cdecided, along with the prime minister\u201d, that it should go: \u201cWe felt that the 45p issue was drowning out a strong package of intervention on energy, a strong package of intervention on tax cuts for people generally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwarteng declined to comment about whether his credibility as chancellor was now undermined, saying only that he was \u201c100% focused on the growth plan\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he declined to say whether the reduction in the amount of borrowing needed for tax cuts meant benefits could now rise in line with inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Labour\u2019s shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said the government had \u201cdestroyed their economic credibility and damaged trust in the British economy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said: \u201cThe Tories need to reverse their whole economic, discredited trickle down strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: \u201cThis humiliating U-turn comes too late for the millions seeing their mortgage rates soar because of this botched budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Conservatives\u00a0must now cancel their conference and recall Parliament, to sort out this mess for the sake of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pound surged higher in overnight trading on Monday as reports emerged that the government would U-turn. Sterling hit $1.125 at one stage, recovering back to levels seen before the mini-budget, though it pared back some of the gains in early morning trading to stand at $1.119.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The overall package of unfunded tax cuts in the mini-budget triggered turmoil in the City, and was criticised by the International Monetary Fund. After a steep rise in the cost of government debt, the Bank of England made a a \u00a365bn emergency intervention to restore order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the conference, the former cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Grant Shapps had taken aim at the plan to cut the top income tax rate, with speculation the wider programme of tax cuts could be financed in part by cutting benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gove toured fringe events at the party conference in Birmingham to give his verdict on the plan, which he called \u201cnot Conservative\u201d, hinting that he could vote against the measure in the Commons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapps, the former transport secretary, used a column in the Times to say \u201cthis is not the time to be making big giveaways to those who need them least\u201d because \u201cwhen pain is around, pain must be shared\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis bolt-from-the-blue abolition of the higher rate, compounded by the lack in communication that the PM acknowledges, is an unforced error that is harming the government\u2019s economic credibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, the prime minister had told the BBC in a pre-conference interview that while she could have \u201claid the ground better\u201d for the mini-budget 10 days ago that put in \u00a345bn of largely unfunded tax cuts, she was not about to change course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Government makes U-turn over proposal to abolish top-rate tax cut after growing backlash over mini-budget Liz Truss\u2019s government has abandoned its plan to abolish the 45% top rate of income tax in a humiliating U-turn, following a mounting Conservative revolt over the policy and a turbulent reaction from markets. In a\u00a0tweet, Kwasi Kwarteng confirmed the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,12],"tags":[7358,6607,2735,6370,9042,12484,5268,5249,3782,1425,9331,10000,2512,5262,6725,10391,5799,6718,685,5196,5494,1258,9643,2264,5563,7447,6543,8892,7998,6546,10954,2183,11493,1828,5840,325,9683,6864,5612,4771,2402,11973,12727,1198,2627,3174,10214,10878,10041,11325,8840,1502,4890,13307,3080,594],"class_list":["post-26216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-world-news","tag-bank","tag-bank-of-england","tag-bbc","tag-birmingham","tag-borrowing","tag-breakfast","tag-british","tag-budget","tag-cabinet","tag-chancellor","tag-city","tag-conservative","tag-conservatives","tag-cut","tag-debt","tag-declined","tag-democrat","tag-downing","tag-downing-street","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-england","tag-fund","tag-government","tag-grant","tag-grant-shapps","tag-growth","tag-i-admit","tag-income-tax","tag-inflation","tag-international","tag-international-monetary-fund","tag-interview","tag-labour","tag-liz-truss","tag-michael-gove","tag-millions","tag-ministers","tag-money","tag-mortgage","tag-mps","tag-one","tag-package","tag-parliament","tag-pm","tag-prime-minister","tag-rates","tag-revolt","tag-speech","tag-street","tag-strong","tag-tax","tag-tories","tag-trading","tag-united-kingdom","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}