Liz Truss may well live to regret her latest tax pledge

The problem with the promise is that raising taxes to pay for public services is essentially what government does, writes Andrew Woodcock

As political hostages to fortune go, Liz Truss’s promise is one of the biggest (AP)

As political hostages to fortune go, Liz Truss’s promise of “no new taxes” is one of the biggest – and one she may well live to regret uttering.

It won loud applause from an audience of Conservative activists at Wembley, but the history of the phrase suggests it will come back to haunt her if she becomes Tory leader as expected on Monday.

The soundbite was first prominently deployed by the elder George Bush in his 1988 campaign for the US presidency, when he told the Republican National Convention: “Read my lips: no new taxes.”