The 2p cut in national insurance announced in last year’s autumn statement takes effect on Saturday (Image: Getty)
Rishi Sunak has promised to make further tax cuts ahead of an Autumn general election.
The Prime Minister all but ruled out holding a vote in May – saying he will likely go to the country in the “second half of the year”.
Vowing to keep delivering for the British people, Mr Sunak said he had “lots I want to get on with” beforehand.
Mr Sunak said he wanted to keep going on “cutting people’s taxes”, the latest hint of more giveaways.
October has long been thought the most likely date for a poll, but talk of a general election alongside May’s local elections had been revived by the decision to implement a tax cut this week and hold an early budget on March 6.
Don’t miss… Rishi Sunak confirms General Election won’t be until ‘second half of year’
Speaking during a visit to Nottinghamshire the Prime Minister said: “So, my working assumption is we’ll have a general election in the second half of this year and in the meantime I’ve got lots that I want to get on with.”
“I want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people’s taxes. But I also want to keep tackling illegal migration,” he said.
“So, I’ve got lots to get on with and I’m determined to keep delivering for the British people.”
The 2p cut in national insurance announced in last year’s autumn statement takes effect on Saturday.
Mr Sunak added: “A big tax cut is coming in. Every working person across the country is going to benefit from it. It’s worth £450 to an average person in work on the average salary.
“We want to do more because as we manage the economy responsibly, we can cut your taxes, give you and your family peace of mind, immediate relief from some of the challenges you’re facing and confidence that the future is going to be better for you and your children.”
And he said he wanted to get new laws designed to get his Rwanda asylum scheme “up and running” before thinking of an election.
Mr Sunak had already confirmed an election will be held this year, after ruling out the latest possible date of January 2025.
His move to pencil it in for the Autumn seeks to neutralise likely future Labour attacks that Mr Sunak had bottled a spring election.
Former Labour PM Gordon Brown suffered a fatal blow in 2007 when he allowed election rumours to take off – before deciding not to hold one the following year.
The event marked the start of a series of “town hall” events designed to convince sceptical voters that he is delivering for the country.
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Waiting until the Autumn gives Mr Sunak more time to turn around the Tories’ dire polling, boost the economy and to get Rwanda flights off the ground.
Both the Conservatives’ and Labour’s long election campaigns were well under way on Thursday, as both party leaders visited battleground areas.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer indicated that if he won the election he would wait to grow the economy before fulfilling a desire to cut taxes on working people, in a dividing line with the Tories.
Mr Sunak raised the prospect of further tax cuts after the incoming easing of national insurance, despite the Conservatives taking the overall tax burden to the highest since the Second World War.
Speaking to an assembled group of Red Wall voters in Mansfield he said cutting taxes would be the “single biggest difference between us and the Labour Party in the next election.”
Mr Sunak attacked Labour’s £28 billion-a-year green energy investment plans, which are designed to bring down bills, drive growth and reduce reliance on overseas fuels.
The Prime Minister claimed it cannot be done “without putting up inflation, without putting up mortgage rates or without putting up all your taxes”.
“We are going to keep talking about it because ultimately it’s going to impact everyone in this country and we’re going to cut their taxes and make sure everyone knows that if they ever get a lefty, your taxes are going up,” he said.
But after his own speech at a research facility near Bristol, Sir Keir hit out at Tory attacks as “misconceived” and acknowledged the scale of the plans could be reduced.
The Labour leader said that “if the money is from borrowing, which it will be, borrowing to invest, that the fiscal rules don’t allow it, then we will borrow less”.
He said that “in principle I do want to see lower taxes on working people, I want people to have more money in their pocket”.
But he stressed that the “first lever that we will pull is the growth lever because in the end that’s the only way we’re going to get the money we need to fund our public services”.
In another possible dividing line, the Labour leader said he is “fundamentally opposed” to axing or reducing inheritance tax on the wealthy, a move being mooted by the Tories.
Sir Keir also warned the Tories he will meet their “fire with fire” in a fiercely contested general election.
Labour faced criticism last year for a series of personal attacks on the Prime Minister, accusing Mr Sunak of not wanting to see child sex abusers jailed because of his law and order record.
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, has urged political leaders to treat each other as human beings as they enter the election year.
Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: “Rishi Sunak has bottled it and is running scared of a May general election.
Squatter Sunak is holed up in Downing Street, desperately clinging on to power rather than facing the verdict of the British people.
We need an election in spring, so that voters can finally get rid of this appalling and out-of-touch Conservative government.”
