Defence boss Gavin Williamson tells Cabinet to CUT taxes rather than raise them to pay for the NHS
The minister said lowering taxes would raise extra revenue needed for the NHS by encouraging more economic activity
DEFENCE chief Gavin Williamson told Cabinet the Tories must bin plans to hike taxes in the Budget - and cut them instead.
He said his party should follow the example of Donald Trump in the US and former Tory Chancellor Lord Lawson by reducing the burden on the taxpayer.
And he argued this would be the best way of raising the extra revenue needed for the NHS - by encouraging more economic activity.
His intervention came on Tuesday during a Cabinet debate on the forthcoming Autumn Budget about the balance between tax and spending.
Mr Williamson, who only joined the Cabinet at the end of last year, urged his colleagues to return to core Tory values and "give people more power over their own money".
It has sparked a fresh Cabinet split over how to pay for the extra £21 billion a year pledged to the NHS.
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IT is shocking that the tax burden has hit the highest level since under Harold Wilson’s Labour Government of 1970.
Doubly so that it is happening under a Tory Party meant to champion low taxes.
The figures should sober up Chancellor Philip Hammond. Because he plainly cannot afford to raise the burden yet higher to fund the promised £20billion annual splurge on the NHS.
He must cut elsewhere, starting with the insane aid budget. And cross-party talks must be initiated to find a future for funding health and social care that won’t bankrupt Britain.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson rightly insisted in Cabinet last week that taxes should be CUT.
Raising them drains blood from the economy. It is folly.
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The Prime Minister and Chancellor Philip Hammond have signalled there will be tax rises to pay for the extra health spending.
It puts Mr Williamson on the side of the Tory right - along with senior backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has suggested he will oppose any plans to hike taxes in the Budget.