Chancellor of the Exchequer has refused to rule out announcing new tax rises for the
rest of the year.
At Treasury Questions on Tuesday, Mr Sunak failed to answer a
simple yes or no question from opposite number on whether
he planned to make announcements of tax rises before the end of
2020.
And when asked by Dodds to comment on warnings from his two
immediate predecessors in the Treasury that the Government’s
threat to breach international law could damage the UK’s economic
prosperity, Mr Sunak rolled out meaningless platitudes about
“Global Britain”.
Dodds described this as reflecting a lack of concern about the
country's future economic prosperity.
Mr Sunak also declined to say whether he could survive on
Statutory Sick Pay at £95 a week, amid rumours that it is the
Chancellor who is blocking efforts to improve it.
When asked by Dodds if he agreed with the Secretary of State for
Health that Statutory Sick Pay in the UK is not enough to live
on, Mr Sunak said:
“We are trialling incentive payments in local lockdown areas”
But the instruction to self-isolate applies nationally, and is
supposed to avoid the spikes in coronavirus cases that lead to
local lockdowns in the first place.
The Treasury front bench also failed on six occasions to commit
to stepping away from the Chancellor’s one-size-fits-all furlough
cliff edge.
Speaking after Treasury Questions, said:
“The Chancellor was asked a simple yes or no question about
whether he would rule out announcing new tax rises this year –
and he failed to answer it.
“It only fuels speculation that he wants to hike taxes now just
so he can cut them before the next election. He’s playing
politics with people’s jobs and livelihoods.
“The Chancellor should be focused relentlessly on protecting
jobs, not floating a tax and cuts agenda that could choke off our
national recovery just when the economy is at its weakest.”
On sick pay:
“The Chancellor refused to say whether he could survive on
Statutory Sick Pay at just £95 a week.
“We already know the Health Secretary doesn’t think UK sick pay
is enough to live on.
"Rishi Sunak's evasive answers did nothing to dampen the
suspicion that he is blocking efforts to make it better.”
