Rishi Sunak said people understand why he cannot cut taxes at the moment because they are not "idiots".
The Prime Minister said he "wished" he could cut taxes "tomorrow" but the current state of the public finances meant he is unable to.
There were reports earlier this week that Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is planning a "slimmed down" Budget in March with no immediate tax cuts.
Asked about the reports during a Q&A session in Morecambe today, Mr Sunak said that when he was chancellor he "preferred it when the prime minister didn't comment about tax policy".
But he said: "I am a Conservative. I want to cut your taxes, of course I do, because you all work incredibly hard and I want you to keep more of your money so you can spend it on the stuff that you want to.
"That is what I want to deliver. I wish I could do that tomorrow, quite frankly, but the reason we can't is because of all the reasons you know. You are not idiots, you know what has happened. We had a massive pandemic for two years... then we have got this war going on which is having an enormous impact on inflation and interest rates."
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