SENIOR Tory Laura Trott clashed with Sky News host Trevor Phillips during her morning media round on Sunday.
The newly appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury was speaking with the host following Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement – which was delivered on Wednesday.
She refused to comment on any potential future tax cuts but did tell the programme: “What I would say is that we have set a direction of travel to grow the economy, to support businesses and to reward work, and we want to bring the tax burden down over time in a responsible way.”
Chancellor Hunt announced a national insurance cut worth £10 billion in his Autumn Statement earlier this week.
'You're taking the tax burden to the highest level since 1948... before i was born'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) November 26, 2023
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Laura Trott MP insists the autumn statement was the biggest tax cutting event since the 80s#TrevorPhillips https://t.co/fhIHlpTGAF
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/2lYFgxqTE7
Trott added: “Inflation is now down. We have turned a corner and that is why we can take steps to bring the tax burden down.”
However, the Tory MP was then confronted with a graph which showed the tax burden in the UK was increasing.
Phillips said: “You know this graph better than anybody. You’re the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.”
Pointing to the graph, the host added: “We are now at the highest tax burden since 1948 – that’s before I was born and dinosaurs roamed the earth then.
“I mean honestly you are increasing taxes not cutting them.”
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In response, Trott said: “What we did at the Autumn Statement this week is the biggest tax-cutting measures since the 1980s.
“They brought the burden down by 0.7% but we know that we’ve had to pay back our Covid debt – that is something by the way that the Labour Party opposed but we are now taking action to bring down the tax burden.”
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