Cost-of-living: DUP presses for general tax cut including axing ‘green levies’

Gordon Lyons MLA met Nadhim Zahawi in Belfast today, and in a statement afterwards the DUP said they had pressed the leading Tory (who is backing Liz Truss in the leadership fight) to look into axing the amount of tax people pay.

The Bank of England says the current inflation rate is 9.4% – meaning a standard assortment of goods and services which the average person might need costs that much more than it did a year ago.

The target is to cap inflation at 2%, but the bank estimates that before the crisis peaks inflation will have reached perhaps as high as 13% “over the next few months”.

There has been much wrangling over how to help citizens out amid such a sharp surge in the cost of living.

One idea is to give every household in the UK £400 (see previous pages).

But Mr Lyons also said that, besides such a payment, the bigger solution is to make “a series of tax cuts which would have reduced people’s bills every month... the best way to put money into people’s pockets, is to never take it in the first place”.

Among the things proposed by the DUP is “axing VAT on energy bills” (which the party says has been hampered by the Protocol);

Cutting duty and “green taxes” on petrol and diesel, and pausing plans to remove the rebate on red diesel;

And cancelling a planned 1.25% increase in National Insurance contributions.

The issue of tax cuts has played heavily into the Tory leadership fight.

Education Secretary James Cleverly told ITV’s Good Morning Britain today it is “not in the hands” of Liz Truss or her campaign team to “truncate” the process of agreeing extra help.

“In order to bring about changes to tax systems or to financial support systems, we need to have votes in the House, that needs to go through a proper scrutiny process,” he said.

“It is not as simple as recalling Parliament to have an emergency debate on something like military action, which is a very simple one-question yes or no answer.”

Meanwhile Rishi Sunak supporter (and ex-NI minister) Theresa Villiers said said “no government can insulate everyone” from the rising cost of energy, but that Mr Sunak “certainly recognises that we need to do more”.

A spokesperson for the Truss campaign dismissed Mr Sunak’s outlook as being a “socialist tax and spend” one.