Income tax cuts and fuel duty relief should be part of the Budget, say Red Wall Tories

Income tax cuts and fuel duty relief must be included in the next Budget, Red Wall Tories have demanded.

The influential New Conservative group of MPs has written to Jeremy Hunt with a plan to ease the burden on working families by around £24 billion.

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Proposals include cutting the income tax rate by 1p – as Rishi Sunak promised in 2022 – and increasing the 40p higher band from £50,000 to £60,000.

The largely elected party in 2019 believes cutting taxes will create “a clear dividing line with Labour” to help close the gap in the polls.

Leading member Jonathan Gullis said: “If the government accepts these proposals we will say very clearly to the British public: it is either lower taxes and high growth under the Conservatives or higher taxes and low growth under Labour.”

The overall tax burden has risen to its highest point since World War II due to eye-watering Covid spending and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Chancellor Hunt said today that tax cuts may not be “affordable” and that it is too early to anticipate the March 6 Budget.

But MPs want him to set a path to cut income rates by a further 4p by 2029, to show the party is serious about low taxes.

Their “Budget For Families” document also puts pressure on Mr Hunt to maintain the 5p cut in fuel duty and extend the rate freeze for a fourteenth year in a row.

Mr Gullis said The Sun's Keep It Down campaign – which has successfully kept petrol taxes frozen since 2011 – is “essential for families” in their lives.

Other proposals will increase the VAT registration threshold from £85,000 to £250,000 to help small businesses “unlock their full potential”.

And they want to scrap the IR35 reforms, which mean companies can designate contractors as employees rather than self-employed, much to the contractors' despair.

The latest demand is to scrap child benefit for high earners, with parents paying a levy if they earn more than £50,000, despite many still struggling with the cost of care.

The group's analysis puts the total cost at £23.7 billion, which they say could be met with £20 billion of headroom plus potential public sector productivity gains.

Unlike other Tory backbenchers, they noticeably did not call for inheritance tax cuts at the March 6 Budget, with Mr Gullis saying this should not be prioritized for the 'here and now'.

He said Mr Hunt would do better to help the “expressed middle”, which has been caught out by stealth attacks due to higher taxes.

He added: “What we are proposing helps hardworking families, helps the motorist and helps those great, independent family businesses that are the backbone of our economy.”