Sunak promises tax cuts based on “uncertainties”

Rishi Sunak has made a big play of promising British voters that a Labour government would raise taxes, while the Conservatives would cut them. The word tax featured 27 times in his manifesto launch on Tuesday, and Sunak repeated the (heavily disputed) line about Labour’s £2,000 hike. Pledging tax cuts of more than £17 billion, alongside a rise in defence spending, Sunak hopes a) to be taken seriously and b) to move the dial on polling day. He is unlikely to do either. According to the manifesto, these spending plans would be paid for by a £12 billion cut in welfare spending and a £6 billion crackdown on tax avoidance. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the former measure was “difficult to the extreme”.

Watch out for Tortoise’s in-depth analysis of the major parties’ manifestos on Friday.