TORY leadership candidates who promise massive unfunded tax cuts will damage the credibility of the party, former housing minister Robert Jenrick said.
Mr Jenrick, who is supporting Rishi Sunak for leader, said the former chancellor is the one candidate in the field who could win a general election.
He told GB News: “He doesn’t want to make up unfunded promises and announce them on the hoof, that’s not a responsible thing to do.
“The public will see through that what the public are crying out for right now, I believe, is professionalism and credibility.
“And on the economy they want to see someone who has a serious plan. How can we bear down on inflation, which is the cause of the inflationary issues that people are feeling?
“How can we get confidence in the economy? How can we grow it over the next five to ten years, and by doing so how can we sustainably cut taxes?
He added: “Just announcing as part of a leadership campaign 30, 40, 50 billion pounds of largely unfunded tax cuts is not going to do any good for the credibility of the Conservative Party, because the public aren’t fools they can see through that.
“They want a Prime Minister who is economically literate and has a very clear plan for the economy. And I think that’s Rishi Sunak, he is the person who understands the economy better than anybody else.”
Speaking in an interview during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he insisted that only Sunak has the appeal needed to win a general election.
“Well, firstly, all of the polling suggests that Rishi is the most likely candidate to win a general election,” he said.
“He’s the most known, the most trusted by the public, and the polls suggest he would win in the north and the south, remain voting areas and previous leave voting areas as well.
“But on the core question, you’re asking about tax and the economy, few people in the Conservative Party have argued for lower taxes more than me over the course of the last year and I know Rishi, I’ve known him for more than 10 years.
“He is a tax cutting conservative, but he wants to do so with a real plan.”
Mr Jenrick also denied that the Prime Minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings was involved with the Sunak campaign.
Asked if Mr Sunak was working with Mr Cummings, he said: “No, absolutely not. I don’t believe that Rishi has spoken to Dominic Cummings since he left the government two years ago.
“Dominic was Boris Johnson’s appointment, not Rishi Sunak’s. This campaign is Rishi’s, he’s his own man.
“He’s got his own ideas for the country set out in great detail in brilliant speeches like the Mais Lecture that he gave earlier this year.
“And that is the vision for the future of the country and the economy that he’s going to be setting out here to parliamentary colleagues over the next few days and hopefully to members of the Conservative Party in the weeks to come.”
