TORY leadership hopeful Liz Truss made £20 billion worth of spending pledges as she took part in the first public hustings of the contest.
The foreign secretary said she would axe next year’s planned hike in corporation tax, and vowed to introduce a moratorium on the “green levies” paid by energy firms.
Responding to a question about the cost of living crisis, Ms Truss said she would take immediate action to start “putting money back into people’s pockets” during the cost of living crisis.
The minister told the online event, hosted by the Conservative Home website, that she would reverse the national insurance hike, which she said she opposed in Cabinet.
“I think it’s even more of a mistake now when we’re facing such strong economic headwinds,” she added.
“I would also have a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy to cut £153 from people’s energy bills.
“And I would also not do the corporation tax hikes because I think it’s vitally important that we’re attracting investment into our country.”
From next April, corporation tax is due to rise from 19 to 25%. It is forecast to bring in more than £16 billion annually from 2024/25.
The green levy, which relates to the environmental and social obligation charges, brings in around £5bn.
Former chancellor Rishi Sunak said he would only cut tax when inflation is under control.
“The most impressing economic challenge we are facing is inflation – inflation is the enemy that makes everybody poorer and it must be the Government’s priority to get a grip of it,” he said.
“I’m not going to do anything that puts that at risk, so I will deliver tax cuts but I will do so responsibly after we’ve got a grip of inflation.”
Penny Mordaunt said she was making few commitments on tax because “this contest is not the right place to do it”.
“I’m not going to set out plans for corporation tax or any other of those taxes until we have a proper fiscal event,” the trade minister said.
The candidates were also asked why they were best placed to stand up to Vladimir Putin and help Ukraine’s war effort.
Ms Mordaunt, who was a minister in the MoD, said the Russian leader “has to fail.”
“He cannot gain any territory, he cannot be emboldened in his ambitions at all. There can be no compromise on that,” she added.
Ms said that she “more than anyone”, understood “how important it is the UK is a positive force in the world and is seen to be a positive force in the world.”
She added: “It is critically important that countries around the world know we are there to protect those who cannot protect themselves.”
Tom Tugendhat, who served in the army, said Russian influence in the UK needed to be tackled too.
“I was in Ukraine earlier this year and have met with many Ukrainian officials and military officers over the past 12 months.”
“I know what we can do, what we must do. We must force Putin to realise he is going to lose, though it is not for us to define what victory means for the Ukrainians,” he added.
Mr Sunak said: "In terms of standing up to Putin, we have to put in place very serious sanctions.
“Looking forward, defence spending is forecast to rise to 2.5%. I don’t take an approach that relies on arbitrary figures.”
Ms Truss said the UK had “led the free world in standing up to Putin and supporting Ukraine in their hour of need.”
However, she added, “we need to do more.”
“We need to send more weapons to Ukraine, we need to send more heavy weapons, we need to encourage our international allies to do more.”
During the hustings, the candidates were also all asked to share their “greatest weakness”.
Ms Badenoch said hers was “allowing my sense of humour to look like I’m flippant about issues”, while Mr Sunak said he works too hard.
Ms Truss said she has in the past been “excessively over-enthusiastic and sometimes I have to rein myself in”.
Mr Tugendhat said he talks about his time in the Army “a little too much, which is possibly a weakness.”
Ms Mordaunt said: “I was tempted to say Burmese cats, as I have four and introducing them into No 10 might present some challenges with Larry.”
The five candidates will face off again tonight in a televised debate on Channel 4.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel