A former Treasury minister who labored below George Osborne has criticised Liz Truss’s “endless crazy tax cut” plans and described her now deserted regional pay proposals as “laughable”.
The scathing feedback from Jim O’Neill — a crossbench peer and economist — comes after the overseas secretary dropped a significant coverage barely 12 hours after it was launched after going through a major backlash.
The overseas secretary had proposed a £8.8 billion “war on Whitehall waste” that included plans to introduce regional pay boards for civil servants and will have led to cuts in public sector wages outdoors the southeast.
Tim Montgomerie, a former No 10 aide and founding father of the Conservative Home web site, mentioned the U-turn was not the overseas secretary’s “finest hour” — however Lord O’Neill mentioned the outline was “generous”.
He informed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Laughable really, given that the guy she’s still quite happy to align herself with signature policy was supposedly levelling up. The optics of that: Dear, dear, dear.
“I guess some kind of vague academic study might be out there, or might even be worthy of a PhD thesis, as to whether same pay for civil servants all around the country might be looked at.
“But the idea someone in a [Boris] Johnson cabinet would seriously suggest something like to me — I should laugh because it’s so important”.
Describing himself as “close” to the idea of levelling up — the flagship coverage of the outgoing prime minister – Lord O’Neill mentioned: “I don’t get it.”
“The idea of somebody that wants to be the prime minister coming out of a Johnson government that is a sign of her commitment to levelling — I’m sorry it’s very disappointing.”
Treasury minister Lord O’Neill additionally criticses ‘endless crazy tax cut’ proposals
(PA)
Asked about her justification to avoid wasting billions of kilos to fund different proposals, he added: “Well if you’re gonna come up with endless crazy tax cuts to keep yourself popular for the small number of people who vote for the new leader then that’s the sort of thing that follows — one crazy idea results in another.”
In an try and defend Ms Truss, her supporter and former cupboard minister Brandon Lewis urged it was “never the case” the management contender deliberate to chop public sector pay.
“That was never suggested in anything,” he added.
However, Ms Truss’s group had made clear when the proposal was unveiled {that a} signficant quantity of the cash she got down to save – £8.8 billion of £11 billion – must lower from the general public sector.
“This is the potential savings if the system [regional pay boards] were to be adopted for all public sector workers in the long term,” a press launch mentioned.
Ms Truss, the frontrunner within the race to switch Boris Johnson in No 10, additionally claimed after the U-turn on Tuesday her coverage had been “misrepresented” amid rising blue-on-blue tacks.
Speaking to the BBC in Dorset, Ms Truss mentioned: “I’m afraid that my policy on this has been misrepresented. I never had any intention of changing the terms and conditions of teachers and nurses.
“But what I want to be clear about is I will not be going ahead with the regional pay boards, that is no longer my policy.
“I’m being absolutely honest, I’m concerned that people were worried, unnecessarily worried about my policies and therefore I’m being clear that the regional pay boards will not be going ahead.”
Source: www.impartial.co.uk
