COVENTRY South MP Zarah Sultana challenged new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt following the government’s reversal on several of the tax cuts implemented in the ‘mini-budget’.
Speaking in Parliament, Ms Sultana said the new Chancellor should “raise taxes on the super-rich, not cut public services”.
“If he really believes in his approach, why doesn’t he put it to the people in a general election?”
Mr Hunt added that ‘more difficult decisions’ will have to be made.
She described the government’s policies as a ‘new wave of austerity’ adding they would “squeeze services that have already been cut to the bone.
“This is without a mandate and is a political choice, not an economic necessity.”
Mr Hunt denied claims this was a ‘new wave of austerity’, pointing to previous government spending including furlough and the cost-of-living package.
Prime Minister Liz Truss appointed Mr Hunt after she sacked Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor last Friday.
Coventry Conservative leader Coun Gary Ridley said: “Putin’s war has driven up gas prices and inflation, in response interest rates have been rising across the globe.
“Obviously the so-called mini-budget didn’t help and Jeremy Hunt has taken a range of measures to stabilise the situation.
“It’s disappointing that Zarah Sultana sees this as some kind of point scoring exercise because in the real world people are worried. They want a grown-up approach to politics with grown up solutions.
“She will find that the closer Labour are to being in power the more scrutiny they will come under.”
