Truss Made ‘Unforced Error’ Over Tax Cuts, Top Lawmaker Says
(Bloomberg) -- Liz Truss’s government made an “unforced error” by announcing sweeping tax cuts cuts last year that spooked markets, according to the head of the UK’s Treasury Select Committee.
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Harriett Baldwin, who took over as chair of the influential group of lawmakers in November, said the market turmoil that followed Truss’s September “mini-Budget” was “foreseeable,” according to an interview on Bloomberg Radio on Monday.
Still, she gave some support to Truss, who broke her silence about her brief premiership over the weekend, blaming the “powerful economic establishment” for preventing her from implementing her pro-growth plans.
Baldwin said she supported the Office for Budget Responsibility, one of the bodies considered to be part of that establishment, which gives independent analysis of the UK’s finances. But the OBR is “quite linear” in the way it assesses the impact of tax cuts, she said.
The government’s priority should be to cut inflation, Baldwin said. After that, “there’s potentially room to stimulate through tax cuts.”
Baldwin was speaking as the Treasury committee released a report on push payment fraud — when bank customers are persuaded to make payments to recipients who are claiming the money improperly.
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