Budget 2024: Jeremy Hunt plays down pressure from fellow Tories over cutting tax

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has said the chancellor appears to “not like his own policy” on free childcare expansion.

Jeremy Hunt announced in March 2023 that eligible families of children as young as nine months will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week by 2025, with a staggered rollout seeing working parents of two-year-olds able to access 15 hours of free childcare from April.

But he told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he did not “want to give an absolute guarantee” that the policy would be delivered on time.

Speaking after Mr Hunt, Ms Phillipson told the programme: “What we heard from Jeremy Hunt is a failure to guarantee that parents will be able to access what he promised a year ago.

“A year ago I was pushing Jeremy Hunt really hard on childcare, he rushed out this commitment with a pledge with no plan to make it happen, and now it’s working parents, who in the weeks and months ahead – when they go and try and access those places that have been promised – will discover that they just can’t be delivered in the way that he set out.

“What was also rather peculiar, I thought, about what he went on to say, he seemed to almost not like his own policy and regarded it as some kind of extension of the welfare state.”

The chancellor said he wants to cut taxes “responsibly” after economists warned against mass tax cuts as the government’s projected economic headroom was reduced.

Jeremy Hunt told the BBC’s Laura Kuennsberg that the most “un-conservative thing” would be to “cut taxes by increasing borrowing because that’s just cutting taxes and saying that future generations have to pick up the tax”.

He added: “I won’t do that. But I do want where it’s possible to do so responsibly, to move towards a lower tax economy and I hope to show a path in that direction. This will be a prudent and responsible budget for long term growth.”

Jeremy Hunt has insisted that it is more important to ensure public services are efficient than spend more money on them.

“I think what most people want is better public services and a lower tax burden. It’s the old thing, isn’t it – ‘can we have European public services and American levels of tax?’ The only way we have a chance of delivering something like that is by spending the money we spend on public services much more efficiently,” he told the BBC.

Citing examples of nurses and police officers spending hours a week doing “unnecessary paperwork”, he continued: “We have to think not about the money we’re putting in, but whether we can do things more efficiently so we can get more out.”

Jeremy Hunt has insisted his Budget will not be one of “gimmicks” as he was asked by the BBC about a quote of his from 2022 on abolishing the non-dom tax status.

The chancellor previously said of the tax status that its beneficiaries “are foreigners who could live easily in Ireland, France, Portugal or Spain. They all have these schemes. I would rather they stayed here and spent their money here.”

Asked if he disagreed “with Jeremy Hunt from 2022”, Mr Hunt said: “I don’t disagree with Jeremy Hunt from nearly everything I’ve said in the past, but sometimes – let me say this: the country sees through gimmicks, and we are not going to do gimmicks on Wednesday. It’s going to be a Budget for responsible long-term growth.”

Jeremy Hunt has said he was confident the free childcare expansion pledge he made at the last Budget is “on track” but refused to give an “absolute guarantee”.

The chancellor announced in March 2023 that eligible families of children as young as nine months will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week by 2025, with a staggered rollout seeing working parents of two-year-olds able to access 15 hours of free childcare from April.

Asked about the status of the pledge by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Hunt said: “I believe we are on track.

“It is the biggest expansion of childcare in a generation. What we said in the Budget a year ago was that we would expand the 30 hours of free childcare to every parent when the children are nine months or older. That is a huge change.

“It may mean that we need to employ 40,000 more people in the sector and that is why we are bringing it in stages.”

Pressed again on the commitment, the chancellor said: “You will understand why I don’t want to give an absolute guarantee. But am I confident that we are delivering this programme and it will be on track for this April? Yes, I am.”

The chancellor said he hoped to use the Budget to “show a path” in the direction of tax cuts.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Jeremy Hunt ruled out borrowing to fund tax cuts, saying: “I won’t do that.”

He added: “I do want, where it is possible to do so responsibly, to move towards a lower tax economy, and I hope to show a path in that direction. This will be a prudent and responsible Budget for long-term growth, tackling inflation, more investment, more jobs and that path to lower taxation as and when we can afford that.”

Mr Hunt said there would not be any “gimmicks” this week, adding: “The country sees through gimmicks and we are not going to do gimmicks on Wednesday, it is going to be a Budget for responsible long-term growth.

“When it comes to Labour, this is an election year and people will see a contrast. We have a plan for growth that has seen us grow faster than any large European economy – Labour has just abandoned their plan for growth, their £28bn [in annual green investment].”

Labour’s shadow education secretary said she “deeply regrets” that her party had no other option but withdraw its support for its candidate Azhar Ali in the Rochdale by-election, after he made antisemitic claims about Jewish control over the media.

“I’m very sorry we ended up in that position, but it was necessary and Keir Starmer took the action that was necessary to demonstrate that the Labour Party has changed and that we cannot stand for such unacceptable comments.

“But what I can say is that come the general election, we will make sure we’ve got a great candidate in place that can win back the support of people in Rochdale and deliver an MP for that community that will bring people together, rather than stoking division – which I fear sadly is what we’re going to see in the months to come.”

Labour’s shadow education secretary has refused to say whether her party would reverse any tax cuts Jeremy Hunt may hand out in this week’s Budget.

“Ahead of this Budget they’ve been all over the shop,” Bridget Phillipson told Sky News. “We’ve had a range of different ideas floated. Forgive me for being a bit sceptical about what they might say.

Pressed again, she added: “You’re asking me to engage in a hypothetical on a Budget measure that hasn’t been announced, but in terms of the principle of what we want to see in the Budget – working people are paying more in tax than we’ve paid since the Second World War, and I don’t think it’s right that time and again the Conservatves come to working people and ask them to contribute more and more.”

Citing “25 tax rises in the last parliament alone”, Ms Phillipson continued: “I want to ensure we’ve got a fairer tax system for all.”

Labour’s shadow education secretary has said she would end tax breaks for private schools – having backed down from previous plans to end their charitable status.

Bridget Phillipson told Sky News: “Not the charitable status, but rather ending the tax breaks – absolutely we will press ahead with that.

“The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies have been clear that will raise between £1.3 to 1.5bn, and if I were education secretary I would be making sure that money went directly into our state schools, making sure we’ve got more teachers [and] better mental health support.”

It would be “an abject humiliation” for the Tories to scrap the non-dom tax status in the upcoming Budget, Labour has claimed, because “Conservative ministers have spent years rubbishing this idea”.

“If they were to do it, I think it would just demonstrate that it’s Labour who are leading the charge where it comes to the battle of ideas in our country,” shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Sky News.