Rishi Sunak faces fresh calls to cut taxes after HMRC raked in £718bn last year

Rishi Sunak is facing fresh Tory calls to cut taxes and boost growth after the government collected an eye-watering £718billion last year.

The Chancellor is being pushed by Cabinet colleagues and MPs to help struggling families by reducing the burden. 

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse raised the issue at a meeting of Boris Johnson‘s top team yesterday to brainstorm ways of addressing the cost-of-living crisis.

He is understood to have received support from ministers including Jacob Rees-Mogg.

However, Mr Sunak made clear there will be no big moves before the Autumn Budget, highlighting the risk of soaring inflation and interest payments on the government’s £2trillion debt mountain.

Figures released by HM Revenue & Customs yesterday showed it collected £718.2billion in taxes in the last financial year – up almost a quarter from the year before.

Income, national insurance, capital gains and inheritance taxes all hit record highs in 2021-22 – in part explained by soaring price rises. 

Tax receipts as a proportion of gross domestic product are now 30 per cent – up from 27 per cent last year. The burden is on track to reach the highest level relative to GDP since the 1940s.  

Interviewed on TalkTV last night, Boris Johnson dismissed claims that the Government was failing to help families.

He argued that ministers were doing ‘everything in our power’ to ease the crisis.

He said: ‘We’re helping people by cutting council tax, by making sure that we support people who are facing particular hardship and putting more money into local councils to give them the funds that they need.’ Other ministers at the meeting suggested reducing the cost of childcare and scrapping MoTs to help ease the pain of rising bills and prices.

Mr Malthouse called for lower taxes after ministers were tasked with suggesting ways to ease the cost of living which would not cost the Government money. 

A Cabinet colleague who was present told The Daily Telegraph that Mr Malthouse said: ‘We are a party and a Government of low taxation. 

‘The quickest way of actually regenerating the economy and getting retail activity and job creation back on course is by reducing the tax burden, not increasing it.’

During the Cabinet meeting, Mr Sunak is understood to have stressed the £22billion package of support for families that has already been announced by the Treasury, including a 5p cut in fuel duty.

Former minister Sir John Redwood renewed his calls for tax cuts today.

‘Glad there are voices in Cabinet for lower taxes and more growth. Putting up taxes on jobs and employment is quite wrong when we need more people in jobs and more capacity. So change the policy,’ he tweeted. 

The headline CPI inflation rate is running at 7 per cent, and is forecasts to reach 9 per cent by the end of the year – with some fearing it will go into double-digits.