JEREMY Hunt today confirmed workers will get a £1,000-a-year pay rise as he admitted taxes are “too high” in Britain.
In a major speech on the second day of the Tory conference in Manchester, the chancellor promised to revive the economy by cracking down on benefit “runaways” and reducing the size of the civil service.
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British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt arrives to address the Conservative Party’s annual conference in ManchesterCredit: AFP
He promised to impose a hiring freeze on Whitehall’s fat cats and drastically reduce the number of woke equality and diversity chiefs.
Mr Hunt’s promise to raise the National Living Wage to £11 an hour means full-time workers will see their annual income rise by £1,000 next year.
It comes as…
- Government sources have confirmed that the Manchester leg of HS2 will be scrapped
- Education Minister Gillian Keegan has hinted that she wants to find ways to ban children from using mobile phones in classrooms
- Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has called on her successor Rishi Sunak to be bolder with the economy and drastically cut taxes
- More than 30 Tory MPs have signed a pledge to vote against Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement if it includes a tax increase
- A faction of right-wing Tory MPs has unveiled a rival manifesto that includes calls for tax cuts, reduced immigration and leaving the ECHR
The chancellor told the chamber with the Conservatives: “Today I want to complete another major Conservative reform, the National Living Wage.
“We promised in our manifesto that we would raise the national living wage to two-thirds of the median income – to end low wages in this country.
“It is currently £10.42 an hour and we are waiting for the Low Pay Commission to confirm its recommendation for next year.
“But I am confirming today that, regardless of that recommendation, we will increase it to at least £11 an hour next year.”
The move is expected to affect two million workers.
As well as raising the minimum wage, Hunt admitted that Britain’s tax burden was “too high” and that the size of the state was simply too big.
But to the bitter disappointment of Tory backbenchers, he refused to commit to cutting interest rates ahead of next year’s general election.
The chancellor said: “Conference, when we halve inflation, it’s not just a 1% cut in income tax, it’s a 5% increase in income compared to if things stayed the same.”
Mr Hunt has promised to get spending on public services under control so the economy can stabilize and tax cuts can eventually go ahead.
To cut spending and save a staggering £1 billion, the chancellor has promised to freeze civil service recruitment.
He said: “The Treasury must change its focus from short-term cost control to long-term cost reduction, and we will start with the civil service.
“I am freezing the expansion of the civil service and establishing a plan to reduce its numbers to pre-pandemic levels.”
Mr Hunt has hinted that reawakened equality and diversity roles will be first in the chopping block when civil servants leave Whitehall.
He said: “I will not lift the hiring freeze until public sector productivity improves.
“This means, among other things, changing our approach to equality and diversity initiatives.
“Breaking glass ceilings is everyone’s job, not a box to check by hiring a diversity manager.”
Mr Hunt also confirmed a mega crackdown on benefit claimants who refuse to find work as 100,000 people leave the workforce each year to live on handouts.
The chancellor warned that the system was going in the “wrong direction” since the pandemic forced people to continue working.
It comes as ministers step up their efforts to make ‘work pay’ by increasing productivity in the UK.
Hunted has hit out at Labour, claiming it will remove incentives to work.
He said: “When Labor left power we had more people in households without a worker than anywhere else in Europe.
“Since then, those households have been reduced by nearly a million, and we’re never going back.”
Minutes before the chancellor took to the conference stage, hundreds of free-market Tories gathered in a separate, packed function room at Manchester’s Midland Hotel to hear Liz Truss call on Rishi Sunak to cut taxes.
The former prime minister did not hold back as she pleaded with ministers to “make Britain grow again”.
Ms Truss said: “Let’s stop taxing and banning things,” she told the packed room.
“Instead, let’s build and create things. Let’s be willing to make conservative arguments again, even if it’s unpopular, even if it’s hard. I want everyone in this room to release their inner conservatives.
“And finally, my friends, let’s make Britain grow again.”
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