Boris Johnson wins Tory backing with call to George Osborne over cutting taxes

Appeal: Boris Johnson has called on the Chancellor to lower taxes
12 April 2012

Tory MPs today backed Boris Johnson's call for the Chancellor to show how he will cut personal taxes.

Mr Johnson has urged George Osborne to "set a course" for lower personal taxes and demanded a "real effort of political will" to move away from Labour's fiscal regime.

He said: "Can we endlessly go on with a tax rate that is higher than not just America and Japan but also France, Germany and Italy? We need to set a course for low tax." He suggested the Chancellor may address the calls for lower taxes in the March Budget.

Today Edward Leigh, former chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: "Taxation is far too high in this country." He stressed that the road to recovery lay in "lowering taxation to get people more money in their pockets".

Mark Field, Tory MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, added: "Boris Johnson is right to identify that lower taxation has got to be part of our overall growth strategy. But George Osborne is making good progress on both taxation and lighter regulation."

In an interview today, Mr Johnson is especially critical of the 50p top rate of income tax for high earners which is hitting London particularly hard.

Echoing the views of CBI chief Sir Richard Lambert this week, the Mayor told The Daily Telegraph: "I think we need to set out a pretty clear direction of travel, a pro-enterprise direction of travel."

But one MP warned that the Mayor was "scratching at a wound" by pushing a more Right-wing agenda than the Government can pursue in the coalition. The Government insisted it had already "set out a road map" to have the lowest corporate tax rate in the G20 and reverse Labour's National Insurance rise on employers.

Mr Osborne has described the 50p rate as a "temporary" measure but there are no plans for its repeal.

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