The final five contenders in the Tory leadership race clashed over the cost of living crisis in a tense debate on Sunday night.
Liz Truss hit out at Rishi Sunak’s plans to tackle the cost-of-living crisis during ITV’s fiery leadership stand off.
She said: “Rishi, you have raised taxes to the highest level in 70 years. That is not going to drive economic growth. You raised national insurance even though people like me opposed it in Cabinet at the time, because we could have afforded to fund the NHS through general taxation.
“The fact is that raising taxes at this moment will choke off economic growth, it will prevent us getting the revenue we need to pay off the debt.”
Mr Sunak responded that the pandemic damaged the economy and the money has to be paid back.
He accused her of peddling “something-for-nothing” economics after she said he was choking off growth by raising taxes to their highest level in 70 years.
