Liz Truss’s incoherent promises of tax cuts only mean one thing – more national debt

In the short term – a period that happens to include a general election – Truss is going to spend and borrow as if there is no tomorrow, writes John Rentoul

Call me cynical, but I take the promises Truss has made during the leadership campaign as for illustrative purposes only (Getty)

I don’t want to bore on every day about Liz Truss and the emergency Budget – sorry, I mean “fiscal event” – but she is likely to become prime minister, so what she says and does is important.

Nor will tax cuts be the most significant part of Kwasi Kwarteng’s emergency fiscal event, except to the extent that they form part of the new government’s plan to help people with their energy bills.

The “temporary moratorium on green levies” on energy bills, which journalists delight in reciting along with the candidate at every hustings, is a form of tax cut. That seems simple enough and an obvious candidate for inclusion in the emergency fiscal event, but even that might be caught up in the debate between targeted and universal help that is currently raging among Truss, Kwarteng and their advisers.