Mr Kwarteng told LBC: “He said the tax cuts were, I think, a fairy tale. That was the word he used. He also implied that he was big because he was just going to continue the status quo of raising taxes. “Belatedly, I am very pleased to see that he has changed his mind and that the VAT cut he is proposing today is the same cut he opposed when he was chancellor just three weeks ago.” Grant Shapps, who abandoned his leadership hopes of throwing his weight behind Mr Sunak’s campaign, pointed to the £37bn introduction of cost-of-living support he had overseen while at the Treasury. “He always said he would watch it very closely,” she said. “We now know the position coming into this fall in terms of gas prices in particular. “I think that’s consistent with what he’s said all along, which is that he’s always under scrutiny, and that’s what he’s done by announcing it today.” Mr Sunak’s plans to cut VAT was a policy that “accumulates and helps people quite quickly”, he told Sky News as he suggested Ms Truss’ planned £38bn of tax cuts would be “inflationary”. Taxation has been at the center of the most vexing and personal clashes between the two remaining candidates to become the next Tory leader and prime minister.
