Manchester: Britain’s Treasury chief is to announce a hike in the national minimum wage on Monday, as the governing Conservative Party tries to persuade voters it is on the side of those who are struggling financially.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has ruled out tax cuts, saying they would fuel inflation. According to excerpts of Hunt’s speech released in advance by the Conservative Party, he will tell the Conservatives’ annual conference that the hourly rate for workers 23 or older will rise in April from 10.42 pounds ($12.70) to at least 11 pounds ($13.40). The exact amount will be set after a recommendation by the Low Pay Commission, an advisory body. That will mean a raise for more than 2 million workers. Hunt is also to pledge to toughen the rules on social benefits in an attempt to stem the flow of working-age people out of the workforce, a trend that has accelerated since the coronavirus pandemic. “Those who won’t even look for work do not deserve the same benefits as people trying hard to do the right thing,” Hunt was to say, according to the excerpts. The party is trying to sprinkle voter-pleasing measures such as the pay increase at the conference, which may be the last before a national election due in 2024. But the government’s spending power is constricted by the UK’s sluggish economy and stubbornly high inflation that hit double digits last year and now stands just below 7%. “I do want us to have lower taxes,” Hunt told Sky News. But he said “it’s very difficult to see” it happening this year. The right-of-centre Tories, in power since 2010, are lagging far behind the centre-left opposition Labour Party in opinion polls.
Voters are weary after years of political turmoil over the UK’s exit from the European Union, the coronavirus pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis fuelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who took office just under a year ago, is facing grumbling – and even open rebellion – from some Conservative members and lawmakers. Sunak steadied the economy after his predecessor Liz Truss crashed the pound and trashed Britain’s reputation for fiscal prudence with her tax-slashing economic plans. She left office after just 49 days. Many Conservatives doubt whether Sunak — the party’s fifth leader since 2016 — can restore its popularity to the level that saw the party win an 80-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons in 2019, under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He resigned in mid-2022 amid scandals over his ethics and judgment. In recent weeks, Sunak has sought to take the initiative with a clutch of measures depicted as easing the economic burden on taxpayers. He has delayed a ban on selling new gas and diesel cars and watered down other green measures that he said imposed “unacceptable costs” on ordinary people.
