Rishi Sunak ruled out further tax increases after next month’s looming National Insurance hike in a desperate bid to calm rebellious party activists.
Speaking at the party’s Spring Conference in Blackpool, the Chancellor insisted he had not gone into politics to put taxes up - despite pushing ahead with a £225 a year increase to kick in at the same time as cost of living increases start to bite working families.
And it came less than an hour after Jacob Rees-Mogg gave a half-hearted assessment of the impending increase.
“Taxes are at an abnormally high level after the last two years,” Mr Rees-Mogg said at a fringe event.
“We need supply-side reform and government efficiency to ensure growth and pay for tax cuts. But the National Insurance rise is a matter for the Chancellor.”
But Mr Sunak made a frantic pitch to party faithful just days ahead Wednesday's 'mini-Budget' - insisting even Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson had to put taxes up at the start of their time in office.
“It's been really tough,” he said.
“Gosh, I did not get into this to have to put up people's taxes...it's the last thing I wanted to do.
“But I also take really seriously my responsibility to you, our kids and the nation's finances.”
The Chancellor said he “didn't think it was right" to have debt going up into the future.
“It's not easy, but I do believe it was the right thing to do,” he said.
“But that is done,” he insisted. “We've made the difficult decisions we've had to make. But my plan going forward is to cut taxes.”
Earlier he praised HMRC for their role in developing the furlough scheme, joking: “The taxman is not always everyone's favourite person, but in this instance the team at HMRC did an extraordinary job.”
