FORMER Tory cabinet minister Michael Gove has said he is “profoundly” concerned about Liz Truss’s vast tax cuts as he suggested he could vote against the plans.
The former levelling up secretary criticised using borrowing to pay for slashing taxes as being “not Conservative”.
However, Tory chairman Jake Berry has warned any Tory who rebelled in a Commons vote on the plans would be thrown out of the parliamentary party, intensifying a row as the party conference began in Birmingham.
Gove welcomed the Prime Minister acknowledging she had made mistakes surrounding the mini-budget but said she had displayed an “inadequate realisation” of the scale of the problem.
He told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg show he is “profoundly” concerned that Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is paying for £45 billion of tax cuts through increased borrowing.
Gove added that cutting the 45% income tax rate for the highest earners was a “display of the wrong values”.
He even suggested he could vote against the plans in the House of Commons. “I don’t believe it’s right”, he said of the budget when pressed on the BBC One programme.
Liz Truss told Kuenssberg she could have been better at “laying the ground” for the plans that have sparked major backlash on the financial and mortgage markets.
The International Monetary Fund recently issued an extraordinary statement urging Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to re-think the plans announced in his mini budget.
The Bank of England was also forced to intervene in order to stabilise the market.
Gove added that there remains “an inadequate realisation at the top of Government about the scale of change required” and that there were two major issues with the plan set out by the Prime Minister and Chancellor on September 23.
“The first is the sheer risk of using borrowed money to fund tax cuts. That’s not Conservative”, he said.
The second issue, he argued, was that the move to cut the top rate of income tax and axe the cap on bankers’ bonuses came “at a time when people are suffering”.
Gove has previously held Cabinet positions under Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron.
He is not believed to be leading a coordinated rebellion of Conservatives although could face losing the Tory whip if he votes against the tax cuts.
Asked on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday if a rebellion would result in drastic action, Berry said: “Yes.”
He also urged Tory MPs to unite behind Truss, saying: “I’m sure that if we do that it will lead ultimately to long-term electoral success.”
