Boris tries to shore up his core support, calling himself a "tax-cutting Conservative"

By Matthew Barrett
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Tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph features an interview with Boris Johnson, who shores up his Tory support with a call for George Osborne to follow his lead and cut taxes:

"Mr Johnson uses an interview in the Sunday Telegraph to make a direct appeal to his party’s core values, presenting himself as a “tax-cutting Conservative”. ... As well as his insistence on a low-tax agenda Mr Johnson cites freedom, democracy and low government spending as his key beliefs, and vows to crack down further on crime. ... “I certainly think London needs to be tax competitive,” Mr Johnson says. “I’ve got to look what I can do to bear down on people’s expenses... We’ve frozen council tax over four years, we’ll have cut it by 10 per cent in the next four years.”"

This interview would seem to line up with Liam Fox's comments in the Daily Telegraph yesterday calling for spending cuts, and urging deregulation. However, Boris - and Liam Fox - contrast with former Chancellor Norman Lamont, who, yesterday in the Daily Mail, urged the Chancellor to "steer the course he has charted":

"It was brave and right of the Chancellor to cut the top rate from 50pc to 45pc and I hope he will eventually go further, since tax rates on the other side of the channel look as if they’re heading to 75pc with Monsieur Hollande the likely winner in the French presidential election. The fact is that Britain needs the help of what Tolstoy called 'the two most powerful warriors ... patience and time', as we repay debt and these supply-side measures begin to work. ... The Chancellor must steer the course he has charted."

Read the whole article here.