Mel Stride MP urges chancellor to slash taxes to ease cost of living crisis

The chairman of an influential group of MPs that scrutinises the spending plans of the government has told Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak to slash taxes to ease the cost of living crisis looming over Brits.

Speaking to the PA news agency, Conservative MP Mel Stride, who chairs the Treasury Committee, called on the chancellor to cut taxes to protect households’ budgets amid near-decade high inflation.

“If we can get on top of inflation and get the economy growing, we’d do a great deal to improve the spending power of households,” he said.

Inflation scaled to its highest level since December 2011, rising to 4.2 per cent in October, up from 3.1 per cent in September, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Despite price rises already tearing through the UK economy, experts expect inflation to grow even more. The Bank of England forecasts inflation will hit five per cent next spring. 

Research by Citizens Advice found over three million households in the UK are facing a financial crisis this winter, driven by soaring energy bills and higher food costs, highlighting that the cost of living crunch is already hitting Brits.

Inflation erodes households’ living standards if wages do not keep pace with it.

Stride urged the government to “tame inflation and try and get taxes down so people are keeping more of their money and are going out spending and businesses investing.”

A ramping up in government spending announced at the budget last month is set to push the tax burden to its highest level since the 1950s.

Sunak has committed to slashing taxes in coming years.

But, Stride is sceptical the chancellor will have enough fiscal wriggle room to do so due to a combination of higher interest rates and rising debt servicing costs triggered by an upsurge in RPI inflation eating into his warchest.