Jeremy Hunt’s 2p Budget tax cut is not ‘silver bullet’ to rescue party, George Osborne warns

Jeremy Hunt announced a pre-election giveaway Budget in which he cut taxes for millions but almost immediately faced warnings from senior Tories that he had failed to deliver a “silver bullet” to save his party.

The chancellor slashed 2p from national insurance – and signalled his desire to abolish it altogether – in a bid to woo disgruntled voters. Combined with a similar cut at the end of last year, Mr Hunt said a person on an average salary of £35,000 would be £900 a year better off.

But in a withering assessment, the highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said for every £1 handed back to voters by the chancellor, the decision to freeze tax thresholds would claim £1.30.

In a Budget shamelessly designed to appeal to voters ahead of the looming general election, Mr Hunt also announced an extra £6bn for the NHS and reforms of the “unfair” child benefit system, which will help 170,000 families.

Despite the headline-grabbing policies – including freezing fuel and alcohol duty – former chancellor George Osborne said it was not enough to turn his party around, adding: “It is not the silver bullet that’s going to rescue the Tory Party’s fortunes.”

Another former chancellor, Lord Lamont, said the measures would not transform “the political weather”, while arch-Sunak critic, Tory peer Lord Frost, said cutting NI without changing income tax was “fiddling while Rome burns”.