Gove joins assault on Liz Truss package of tax cuts for the rich

‘Wrong values’: Rebel Tories warn PM will struggle to get 45p rate move through parliament

The former cabinet minister Michael Gove has heavily criticised Liz Truss’s plans for tax cuts for the rich, saying her unfunded £45bn package had the “wrong values” and was not Conservative.

His intervention came as pressure from Tory MPs mounted for Ms Truss to perform a U-turn on controversial plans to axe the 45p income tax band, which gifts an average £10,000 to the 600,000 highest earners in the UK at a time when ministers are eyeing real-terms cuts to welfare benefits.

One former minister told The Independent the government would struggle to get the cut through the Commons when it comes before MPs in the new year, in what would be a virtually unprecedented rebellion against a Budget measure.