, Columnist
Can Britain’s Tories Afford to Be a Low-Tax Party Again?
U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak offered taxpayers some relief, but slow growth and low investment prevents him from doing more.
Budgeting.
Photographer: Tolga Akmen/AFP
This article is for subscribers only.
When Rishi Sunak ditched his Thatcherite principles to flood the U.K. economy with public spending during the pandemic, he fully expected to roll back the largesse soon after. Instead, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer found himself announcing successive new rounds of spending increases and raising taxes to their highest in more than 70 years.
On Wednesday, Sunak set out to bring the Tories back to a more familiar script. He offered some tax cuts and signaled that there is more to come. Only, he said, getting there will be a lot harder than it was in the past.