The four-day Conservative party conference started on Sunday 1 October and tensions have already arisen.
Tax cuts and the future of HS2 are the main issues dominating the party conference, which is being held at The Midland Hotel in Manchester city centre.
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has avoided speculation that HS2’s Birmingham to Manchester leg will be scrapped altogether.
Sunak has also rejected tax cuts before the next general election, despite pressure from his Cabinet and backbench MPs.
Peter Bone, former Deputy Leader of the House of Commons, said: “The argument isn’t about tax cuts, it’s about when to have them. I think we should cut tax because that’ll help to grow the economy.”
He has used the party conference to reinforce his pledge to halve inflation by the end of the year, which is currently at 6.8%.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank stated this week that taxes were likely to increase by £3,500 per household since 2019 – urging more than 30 Tory MPs to sign a pledge against tax raises.
Angela Knight, former Economic Secretary to the Treasury said: “There’s an awful lot of other things that need to be done, and we’ve still got to pull back from all that extra spending that we did during the pandemic. So I’m afraid it’s tax cuts tomorrow but it’s not today.
“Can you cut taxes and provide the services that people want at the moment and do something about debt? The answer is no.”
Michael Gove, levelling up secretary, said he would like to see tax reduced before the next election.
Former PM Liz Truss has called for a cut in corporation tax from 25% back to the 2022 rate of 19%.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has reinforced that taxes will not come down this year.
Hunt also said the government will increase the living wage from £10.42 per hour to £11 an hour and crackdown on those who are unemployed but claim benefits without actively seeking work.
These divisive issues are likely to dominate the remainder of the conference, setting the agenda for the next election.
