Rishi Sunak will cut taxes twice more before the election in an attempt to turn around the party’s position in the polls, the chair of the Conservatives has suggested.
Richard Holden, who took on the job in the autumn, said more tax cuts were likely in the March budget and voters could expect another cut after that as well.
He made the comments in an interview with GB News as the 2 percentage-point cut in national insurance kicked in this month.
“What we are now in is a situation where we are coming out of that very tough period and we’re able to outline our plans for the future,” he said. “And I think the actual tax cut, you mentioned the national insurance cut for working people is the start of that. We’ll see more of that in March, and more of that later in the year as well. We have that new direction of travel, which is clear.”
Holden’s remarks are the clearest statement that tax cuts will happen, despite recent forecasts suggesting that Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, may have less leeway than previously thought.
Experts had forecast headroom of £20bn but the Financial Times reported that Treasury forecasts suggested he had closer to £14bn for cutting taxes.
Hunt has previously hinted that tax cuts are the “direction of travel we would like to go in” but said it was too early to say what he was going to do.
In the GB News interview, Holden also said the Conservatives would consider an application from Nigel Farage to join the party.
Farage was a Conservative many decades ago but has long been a political enemy as the leader of Ukip, the Brexit party and then the co-founder of Reform.
Asked whether he wanted Farage to join the party, in light of polling that showed Reform could be a threat to the Tories’ electoral performance, Holden said: “Polls bounce around. Any application will be considered on its merits.”
He played down current polls showing the Tories trailing Labour by 20 points or more, saying: “It’s quite understandable that between elections polls move around an awful lot.”
Holden did not rule out reappointing the former deputy chair Lee Anderson, who quit this month over Sunak’s Rwanda plan. Anderson has since been hinting he would like his old job back and said he regretted abstaining on the bill.
The party chair said: “It was sad to lose Lee. He does a lot of good for the party, fundraisers around the country. Really helping gee up the membership. I hope he continues to do that.
“But the decisions on jobs for people are not one for me alone. I’ll have to chat to the chief whip and prime minister about it. But I think in the long term, you shouldn’t rule anything out. And in fairness to Lee, he was very decent and straightforward in his resignation letter.”
