Jeremy Hunt’s tax-cut hint won’t appease Tory rebels – or the voters

As Liz Truss packed out the conference crowds with a demand for immediate tax cuts, the chancellor tried to deliver a message of patience. But with the party facing electoral wipeout, there isn’t much of it about, writes Andrew Grice

Jeremy Hunt: don’t mention a penny off income tax (PA Wire)

Jeremy Hunt went into the lions’ den at the Conservative conference, only 90 minutes after a party ravenous for tax cuts had been served up a lunch plate of red meat by Liz Truss, speaking at a packed fringe meeting.

The timing of Truss’s shameless intervention, a year after her mini-Budget imploded on the Monday of last year’s Tory conference, was difficult for the chancellor. This week is a tale of two conferences: the low-key one on the main stage, and the lively debate on the fringes about a party with an identity crisis after so many changes at the top during its 13 years in power.

In a dig at Rishi Sunak, Truss urged the Tories “to make conservative arguments again” and called for corporation tax to be cut to 19 per cent or lower – a bit rich, since Hunt had to put it up to 25 per cent to help clear up the mess she had created.