Skip to main content
The Morning Star 2026 Conference
Tory leadership hopefuls’ fantasy tax cut pledges slammed
A BBC handout photo of Jeremy Hunt MP

TORY leadership hopefuls’ fantasy tax cut pledges will not help the worse-off and will fail to boost growth, an expert has warned. 

Of the nine candidates in the leadership race, seven have already promised to cut taxes on businesses, people or both. 

Confirming their leadership bids today, former health secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt both pledged to reverse the planned corporation tax hike from 25 to 15 per cent, while Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said he would freeze the proposed increase. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Robert Jenrick with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, January 15, 2026
Politics / 17 January 2026
17 January 2026

Once derided by Farage as a ‘fraud,’ Jenrick has defected to Reform, bringing experience and political ruthlessness to the populist right —  and raising the unsettling prospect of a Farage-led movement with a seasoned operative pulling the strings, says ANDREW MURRAY