Jeremy Hunt should be bold in Budget as Tories have last chance to show they are true party of low tax

Cut taxes on work before it’s too late

THE Tories have a last chance in this week’s Budget to show, belatedly, they are the true party of low tax.

They must take it. Brits have been hammered by rocketing tax bills for too long.

The burden is at its highest since records began in 1948. Let that sink in a minute.

Britain was having to rebuild after the devastation of the Second World War.

Food was still being rationed. Our welfare state was only just being set up.

And even then we did not have to hand over so much of our cash to the state.

Enough is enough. Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak must show Brits they have their backs.

They should start by cutting tax on work.

Income tax or further reductions in National Insurance Contributions (NICs) would be a good place to start.

The Chancellor is planning a crackdown on the bloated public sector by introducing efficiencies. Good.

He should be bold — there is plenty of waste to chop.

Tax cuts will give families and businesses a much-needed shot in the arm.

If the Tories are bold in this Wednesday’s Budget, it could yet boost their election chances.

There is not a moment to lose.

Get back to basics

NEVER before has Britain needed a more robust police force.

Given the challenges of controlling increasingly disruptive pro-Palestinian marches, fuelled by racist and anti- Semitic sloganeering, officers are facing near impossible demands.

Yet confidence in our cops is at its lowest ebb.

Last week’s revelations about how evil killer Wayne Couzens slipped under the radar to become an elite protection officer are truly shocking.

Police also appallingly turned a blind eye for years to serial rapist David Carrick’s reign of terror.

In another instance, police in Staffordshire even held a door open at a Conservative event to a pro-Palestinian hard- liner who was shouting abuse.

We urgently need a force that gets back to basics — rigorously investigating and prosecuting crime rather than appearing to aid and abet it

Only then will officers regain the vital support they need to crack down on the extremism on our streets.

Policing in this country has always been by consent.

The British public accepted its legitimacy because it was fair, robust and transparent.

It is high time our cops kept their part of the bargain.