Former British finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Tuesday (12) it was not credible to promise both lower taxes and higher public spending, speaking at a launch event for his campaign to be the country's next prime minister.
"It is not credible to promise lots more spending and lower taxes," Sunak said.
At the same event, he received the endorsement of deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and transport minister Grant Shapps, with the latter abandoning his own bid for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
Sunak said he did not want to distance himself from the fiscal decisions he made during the COVID-19 pandemic and how to deal with the ensuing additional debt and borrowing.
"Whilst that may be politically inconvenient for me, it is also the truth. As is the fact that once we've gripped inflation, I will get the tax burden down," he said.
"It is a question of when, not if."
A Palestinian boy carrying a bag over his shoulder walks through a heavily damaged street in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 31, 2026. Hamas said on July 31, 2026, it had agreed to a deal announced by the US president to end its war with Israel, which includes it handing over its weapons to a Palestinian governing committee and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Getty Images
Protesters trample on photographs of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, along with Israeli and U.S. flags during a rally in Caracas on July 24, 2026, protesting the presence and influence of the United States and Israel in the country, one month after the June 24 earthquakes. Recovering from the earthquakes in Venezuela will take years, the Red Cross said on July 24, one month on from the June 24 disaster that killed more than 5,000 people. Getty Images
