Rishi Sunak slaps down BBC's Nick Robinson as he hits back at tax probe

Rishi Sunak has declared taxes will be cut further if the Conservatives win the next election.

The Prime Minister insisted all of his policies are “fully funded and costed”, highlighting the election battleground with Labour over tax plans.

He told voters: "There’s a clear choice in contrast at this election, our party, the Conservatives, are promising, and will deliver tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that we have already started to deliver

BBC presenter Nick Robinson had challenged the PM over “endless promises”.

He said: “A promise of National Service. A promise for tax cuts for pensioners. A promise for tax cuts for parents. More apprenticeships. More police. More and more money from the Conservatives.

“Have you found the magic money tree?”

But Mr Sunak declared: “No, every single one of those policies you’ve been through is fully funded and costed. We will have a manifesto tomorrow that build on all the things you’ve been through that we’ve already announced.

"We will have a manifesto tomorrow that builds on all the things that you’ve just gone through, that we’ve already announced in this campaign, that, yes, does continue to cut people’s taxes, because I believe in a country where people’s hard work is rewarded.

"And there’s a clear choice in contrast at this election, our Party, the Conservatives, are promising, and will deliver tax cuts, building on the tax cuts that we have already started to deliver , and have ruled out tax rises, that’s not what the Labour Party are doing.

"They are not being open that some taxes are going to go up, but what they’re not telling everyone is that there is a £2,000 tax bill waiting for working families across our country if they are elected."

Challenged over the record high tax burden, Mr Sunak said: "So the context is important, I’m not going to shy away from what happened, I did make those difficult decisions, because that’s right for the financial security of our country.

"But now, taxes are being cut. The average tax rate faced by a typical person in work is the lowest it has been in over half a century.

"So, yes, you're right about the overall tax burden, but for someone in work, an ordinary average worker, today, they face the lowest average tax rate that they have faced in over half a century."

But Mr Robinson responded: " Income tax, going up this year. Income tax, going up next year. Income tax, going up the next year. Year after year after year, you are increasing the income tax for people watching this programme, but you come in interviews and say, “I’m cutting your tax.”

Mr Sunak flew back: "Nick, the facts are very clear, and I’m sure your team will be able to provide them for you, right now, with all the changes – because there’s lots of changes that go on in a system, right now, an average worker is facing the lowest tax rate on their earnings that they have seen in this country, for over 50 years."

The Government has already cut National Insurance for 27 million workers by 4p - once by 2p in the Spring Budget and another in the Autumn Statement.

The BBC presenter also accused the Prime Minister of having "some nerve" claiming that Labour will put taxes up.

He said: "You’ve raised our taxes by record amounts, £93 billion, you’ve produced some figures criticised by the boss of the Treasury, criticised by the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority, criticised by the former Head of the Civil Service. And yet, you come to this interview and you repeat something that you’ve said that they all think is misleading."

But the Prime Minister said: "Because it’s right, and the choice in this election is clear, we are going to keep cutting people’s taxes, you’ll see that in our manifesto tomorrow, you’ve seen it in the announcements that we’ve already made, Labour Party are going to put people’s taxes up."

And he was challenged by Mr Robinson over the claim that Labour will hike taxes by £2,000.

But Mr Sunak said: " There are 27 different policies that underpin that figure. Of those 27, 21 are produced by independent Treasury officials, available online for people to see, three come from other Government sources, two come from the Labour Party themselves, and one comes from an independent investment bank.

"Every single one of them is available, transparent, and you tot them all up and it amounts to £2,000 worth of tax rises for every working family.

"You tot them all up, you divide it by the number of households and that’s how you get £2,094 for every working family in our country, and I don’t want to see that happen.

"That’s what a future Labour Government has got in store."

Mr Sunak insisted day-to-day government spending on public services would continue to increase ahead of inflation under a future Tory government.

But when pressed over whether certain departments would see cuts, he acknowledged "all government's prioritise within that".

Asked if he would be honest with people that his plans would also mean significant spending cuts for many government departments, the prime minister said: "No, that's not what our plans show."

Mr Sunak said he also wanted to focus on productivity in the public sector, which he said had fallen "considerably since Covid".

"If we recover just to pre-Covid levels of productivity, so nothing heroic, just as productive as we were before the pandemic hit… that productivity gain is worth £20bn," he said.

Asking if having your own home had got harder under a Tory government, the prime minister said: “It has got harder and I want to make sure that it's easier.

"And what we will do is not just build homes in the right places and do that in a way that is sensitive to local communities. But make sure that we support young people into great jobs so they can save for that deposit."

He added that "saddling young people with higher taxes" would make it harder for them to save for a deposit to buy a house and he wanted people to "keep more of their money".

Speaking to the BBC as part of its Panorama interviews with Nick Robinson, Mr Sunak added: At the end of the day on July 5th there is only going to be one person that’s Prime Minister and it’s Keir Starmer or myself.

“A vote for anyone who is not a Conservative candidate is just making it more likely that Keir Starmer is that person.”