Boris Johnson has hinted at the prospect of tax cuts for business next year in an attempt to boost the economy as it rebuilds after the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking on his latest “People’s PMQs” session on Facebook, the prime minister said: “We’ll be looking at the tax environment and the regulatory environment and everything we can do to encourage and support business in this country.”
He added that business was “the motor that is going to enable us to pay for all the things we need in the future” and that the success of companies was essential in controlling the deficit.
In his answer to a question on what he was going to do to help small businesses, Mr Johnson said: “I can tell you that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is looking at all the fiscal, the regulatory environment that we need to have to make sure that this is the best place in the world to start a business, the best place to invest.
“And we do everything to make life easy for businesses, for small and medium enterprises, and for big business as well. Because in the end, that’s the motor that’s going to enable us to pay for all the things that we’re going to need in the future. So we’ll be looking at the tax environment, the regulatory environment, and everything to encourage and support businesses across the country.”
The prime minister’s comments could put him on a collision course with his Downing Street neighbour. The hint of tax cuts coincided with remarks by Mr Sunak yesterday in which the chancellor gave a fresh warning over the UK’s mounting debt pile, which he said had left the country “much more sensitive” to any rise in interest rates.
Britain’s national debt now stands at a record £2.1 trillion and is above 100 per cent of GDP for the first time since the 1960s.