Ex-minister Michael Gove blasts Truss over 'non-Conservative' plans to pay for tax cuts with borrowing

2 October 2022, 17:58 | Updated: 17 May 2023, 09:32

Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove has criticised Liz Truss over her 'non-Conservative' plans to pay for tax cuts with increased borrowing.

The Tory MP said he was "profoundly" concerned about the £45 billion's worth of tax cuts, particularly the abolition of the top income tax rate.

He welcomed the Prime Minister acknowledging she had made mistakes around the mini-budget but said she displayed an "inadequate realisation" of the scale of the problem.

It came after Ms Truss earlier admitted she could have been better at "laying the ground" for the plans that have sparked a backlash on the financial and mortgage markets.

Ms Gove said cutting the 45% income tax rate for the highest earners was a "display of the wrong values" and called for Ms Truss to U-turn.

The MP even suggested he could vote against the plans in the House of Commons, as Conservative critics eye a possible rebellion.

"I don't believe it's right," he told the BBC.

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Mr Gove later doubled down on his criticism, telling a Telegraph podcast that it will be "very, very, very difficult" to argue it is right to impose real-term cuts on benefits while cutting tax for the highest earners.

He once again invited Ms Truss to reverse her high-borrowing, tax-cutting plans to prevent a rebellion, which he insisted he was not orchestrating.

He told the PM there is an "opportunity for a course correction and a reset", adding: "I've never voted against the Conservative whip and I want therefore to make sure that we can have a civilised conversation about priorities."

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At a fringe event, Mr Gove warned that the policies set out by Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng could open the door to reckless spending by a future Labour administration.

"Conservatives have a reputation for being prudent and careful," Mr Gove said.

"Sometimes audacity is required, but if we lose our reputation for prudence and care then that opens the door to a left-wing government being reckless in a way that we would all, in this room, think was a mistake.

"Conservatives have in the past been caricatured as speaking for the luckiest and most fortunate in our society.

"At its best, a case can be made for saying that those with talent and those with zing generate the changes, the enterprise the country needs - and I agree with Abraham Lincoln: you don't make the weak strong by making the strong weak, absolutely.

"But at the same time... it's wrong if, when we have a choice between how an additional pound will be spent, thinking that pound should be spent in giving tax cuts to the wealthiest when others are facing really tough times."

He warned that future tax could become "more difficult because of the environment in which we now find ourselves".

In a message to Ms Truss, Mr Gove said that while there should be an acknowledgement of the important voice of the "economic ultra liberals" in the Conservative Party, "we shouldn't allow that to become the dominant melody drowning other things out".