Conservative rightwingers were calling for tax cuts after figures showing budget deficit for July was lower than forecast

Good morning. Westminister politics is largely on auto-pilot at this point in August and, for better or worse, most of the political establishment is in “out of office’” mode. But some visceral instincts never take a holiday, and so it was yesterday that, within hours of ONS figures coming out showing the budget deficit for July a bit lower than forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), Conservative rightwingers were calling for tax cuts.

The Financial Times has the best round-up. In their story, Valentina Romei and George Parker report:

Sir John Redwood, a former Tory cabinet minister, said the OBR had been “ridiculously pessimistic” in its forecasts and that Hunt should act swiftly to cut taxes and hold down public spending.

Redwood added that by cutting some businesses taxes — for example raising the VAT threshold for small companies — and reducing energy taxes, the economy could grow faster without fuelling inflation.

[The mini-budget] is not an experiment we want to repeat. I was a bit alarmed at hearing Tory calls to repeat it yesterday. I think that’s a big risk for the country – certainly not one that we would adopt.

We saw last September what happens if tax cuts are unaffordable and judged to be unaffordable. And the consequences at that time were booster rockets under mortgage, rates, the Bank of England having to rescue pension schemes and a real rocking of international confidence in the UK economy. So you can’t go down that road unless it’s affordable.

So for us, always, this term – responsibility and stability with the public finances.