Liz Truss boasted she is prepared to be an unpopular Prime Minister as she prepares to axe the bankers’ bonuses cap and let the rich get richer.
The Conservative leader is widely expected to scrap limits on how much bankers can add on to their salaries.
She claims such measures hinder economic growth.
Asked on the 102nd floor observatory of the Empire State Building in New York, where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly, if she was prepared to be unpopular, she told Sky News: “Yes, yes I am.
“What is important to me is we grow the British economy because that’s what will ultimately deliver higher wages, more investment in towns and cities across the country - that’s what will ultimately deliver more money to people’s pockets.
“In order to get that economic growth, Britain has to be competitive.
“If we put up taxes, if we have arbitrary taxes on energy companies, if we have high corporation tax we’re not going to get that investment and growth.”
She was forced to admit her tax-cutting plans will initially benefit the rich more than the rest of society.
But she rapped: “I don’t accept this argument that cutting taxes is somehow unfair.
“What we know is people on higher incomes generally pay more tax so when you reduce taxes there is often a disproportionate benefit because those people are paying more taxes in the first place.
“We should be setting our tax policy on the basis of what is going to help our country become successful, what is going to deliver that economy that benefits everybody in our country.
“What I don’t accept is the idea that tax cuts for business don’t help people in general.”
Confirming she will reverse a planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%, she told the BBC : “We do have to take difficult decisions to get our economy right.
"We have to look at all tax rates, so corporation tax needs to be competitive with other countries so that we can attract that investment."
Ms Truss meets US President Joe Biden tomorrow on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York - and the two could be set for a clash over tax policy.
Ahead of their meeting, Mr Biden tweeted: “I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics. It has never worked.
“We're building an economy from the bottom up and middle out.”
But Ms Truss, who backs tax cuts to spark economic growth, told the BBC today: “We do have to take difficult decisions to get our economy right.
"We have to look at all tax rates.”
Backing trickle-down economics, Ms Truss told Sky News: "What I don’t accept is the idea that tax cuts on business don’t help people in general.
"Of course they help people in general, because we want businesses to be more productive, we want more investment, so that ultimately means jobs, growth and investment right across our country."
