SENIOR Tory MPs tonight threatened to vote down Rishi Sunak’s autumn Budget if he hikes taxes.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis vowed to lead an unprecedented rebellion to vote against his own government’s budget if the Chancellor goes ahead with plans to whack White Van Man with a rise in fuel duty and National Insurance.
He said tax would become the “really big argument” between government and Tory MPs over the coming weeks.
Mr Sunak braced Tory MPs for tax rises earlier this week when he told them the Government “will need to do some difficult things” in the autumn Budget to start paying for Covid.
He insisted there wouldn’t be a “horror show of taxes” but said the Tories cannot “simply borrow our way out of any hole”.
The threat of tax hikes has already triggered a revolt among Tory MPs.
Mr Davis, a former close ally of Boris, told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour that he and others would humiliate the Chancellor by forcing him to pass his budget on the back of Labour’s support.
He said: “It’s entirely possible that with a sort of tax-the-rich Budget they could get through on Labour numbers I suppose.
“But it would be a very sorry day for a new Tory chancellor, losing God knows how many Tories”.
Another former minister told the Daily Telegraph: “I won’t be voting for the Budget … I am not voting to put taxes up on entrepreneurs so people can eat half price f***ing burgers.
“Tory MPs are going absolutely insane in the backbench WhatsApp group.”
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