Truss to push ahead with low-tax economy despite calls for caution
Liz Truss has said she will press ahead with plans for the UK to be a low-tax economy with less focus on wealth redistribution under her premiership, despite calls for caution from Tory grandees.
Truss, who is expected to be named as the new prime minister on Monday, said it was fair that her planned tax cut would benefit the highest earners 250 times more than the poorest, arguing it was wrong to view all economic policy through the “lens of redistribution”.
As analysts warned that relying on boosting economic growth to reduce income inequalities could increase disparities, Tory grandees sounded the alarm over what they said risked being an overly doctrinaire approach.
If the foreign secretary is confirmed to have beaten the former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race, she would travel to Balmoral on Tuesday to be formally confirmed by the Queen as Boris Johnson’s successor in Downing Street.
In her only in-depth media interview of the two-month Tory leadership campaign, which took place after voting had closed, Truss told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show she would provide immediate help with energy bills if elected, but declined to say how.
“Within one week I will make sure there is an announcement on how we are going to deal with the issue of energy bills, and of long-term supply, to put this country on the right footing for winter,” Truss said.
“I understand that people are struggling, that businesses are also concerned about their energy bills and the impact it could have on their future.”
Truss nonetheless dismissed what she called fears of “an Armageddon scenario”, adding: “Britain has been through worse in the past – we have the attitude and spirit to get through it.”
Pledging to ensure secure
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