The would-be PMs How Truss and Sunak differ on big policies
The Guardian|August 16, 2022
Either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak will become the next prime minister. We look at how they differ on key policy areas.
Jamie Grierson and Ben Quinn
The would-be PMs How Truss and Sunak differ on big policies

Economy and cost of living

Truss has said her "first port of call" - both for the economy and helps with energy bills - will be tax cuts. She has pledged to reverse the recent national insurance rate rise which was designed to fund health and social care - and to pay for it with fiscal headroom and a delay to paying off debt accrued during the Covid pandemic.

Truss has not ruled out specific help for energy bills, while refusing to set out what this might involve, beyond a suspension of green levies, costing about £150 a year on the average bill. She has more generally said she dislikes "handouts" and prefers people to keep more of their own money.

A tax cuts-based economic policy would disproportionately help those who are better off and do nothing for pensioners or those out of work. But Truss has insisted her plan for a low-tax, low-regulation approach would boost economic growth and help everyone in the longer term.

Sunak has promised "a return to traditional Conservative economic values", a position seen variously as an appeal to instinctive Tory fiscal prudence, or a desire to return to "austerity economics". When challenged with claims he was a "high-tax chancellor", he took aim at other candidates offering "comforting fairytales" rather than face the hard economic reality. However, later in the race to No 10, he promised to scrap VAT on household fuel bills for a year, which would be worth £160 for every household.

Sunak has also promised to lower taxes by 20% by the end of the decade, and said more specifically that he would cut the basic rate of income tax to 16% if the Tories are re-elected in 2024.

Climate

This story is from the August 16, 2022 edition of The Guardian.

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This story is from the August 16, 2022 edition of The Guardian.

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