The new British finance minister acknowledged on Saturday that the tax plan presented by his predecessor, Kwasi Kwarteng, three weeks ago contained “errors” that will be corrected in a new version to be announced on October 31.
Jeremy Hunt was confirmed on Friday as the British government’s finance minister, succeeding Kwasi Kwarteng, who was unexpectedly sacked after just 38 days in the role.
In his first interview with Sky News after taking office on Friday, Jeremy Hunt admitted the government’s mistake in trying to cut taxes on the wealthiest in tough economic times.
“It was a mistake to ‘lower income tax from 45% to 40%’ for the wealthiest when we were going to implement tough tax and spending decisions,” Hunt said.
Likewise, he announced that the Executive headed by Liz Truss must adopt “tough” measures to balance the accounts, by asking all the ministries to present savings plans and abdicate the reduction of tax reductions.
“Spending isn’t going to go up as much as people would like, we’re going to have to save more. And we’re not going to get the tax cuts that I was hoping for, including some [impostos] will have to climb. This is the reality of the situation we are facing,” he added.
Prime Minister Liz Truss modified this Friday her plan to keep corporate tax at 19% and revived the project of the previous administration of Boris Johnson to raise it to 25%, after the financial storm unleashed by the “mini” Budget presented by his former Minister of Economy. Kwasi Kwarteng.
In any case, Hunt said that the levels of austerity applied in 2010, after the outbreak of the financial crisis, by the Government of British Prime Minister David Cameron (2010-2016) will not return.
And despite having declared himself on many occasions in favor of reducing taxes, he admitted that “it would not make sense to do so when you resort to more debt.”
According to the office of Prime Minister Liz Truss, Edward Argar will replace Chris Philp as Secretary of State for Finance, who has been transferred to Secretary of State in the Cabinet.
Hunt was foreign minister for a year under Theresa May and, before that, health and culture minister under David Cameron.
Source: TSF
