With the UK being crushed by high taxes, senior Conservative MP’s are demanding a kick start to growth by lowering the tax burden.
After the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a warning that Britain’s economy would have the poorest performance of all the advanced countries this year, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are under further pressure to cut taxes. The gloomy outlook has prompted Conservative MPs to urge for reduced taxes once again.
The IMF revised down its prediction for the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) to a fall of 0.6 percent in its most recent World Economic Outlook update.
Britain is well behind its competitors in the G7 group of advanced countries given the bleak forecast for the next year.
The UK’s economy is also predicted to go into reverse this year, making it the only one among advanced and developing nations to do so.
The grim outlook has led to further requests from Tory backbenchers for the PM and Chancellor to lower the record-high tax burden.
Speaking on the latest results Tory MP John Redwood said: “The Treasury needs to prove the IMF forecasts for a weak UK economy wrong. To do so it needs to go for growth and cut some taxes.”
MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told Sky News this morning: “We were slow with the increase in interest rates, they should have come sooner as inflation was already running at a very high level.
“We have the highest tax burden in 70 years and that is not good for economic growth.”
Though MPs are calling for lower taxes, Chancellor Hunt rejects calls for lower taxes to be made in the March Budget.
According to his recent statement, the Chancellor wants to plough on with his high tax plan. Mr Hunt went on to say: “The Governor of the Bank of England recently said that any UK recession this year is likely to be shallower than previously predicted, however these figures confirm we are not immune to the pressures hitting nearly all advanced economies.
“Short-term challenges should not obscure our long-term prospects – the UK outperformed many forecasts last year, and if we stick to our plan to halve inflation, the UK is still predicted to grow faster than Germany and Japan over the coming years.”
