Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have outlined plans to save households money and reduce serious crime in their latest Conservative leadership race pledges.
Mr Sunak, the former chancellor, has announced he would scrap VAT on all domestic energy bills for the next year, saving the average household £160 ($193), if he became prime minister.
The move is part of his “winter plan” to tackle inflation and the high cost of living which, his campaign team says, stands in contrast to the inflationary £55 billion of fiscal commitments Ms Truss has made.
On top of scrapping VAT on all domestic energy bills, the Tory leadership hopeful said he would also undertake major supply-side reforms.
“Tackling inflation and getting people the support they need to help with the cost of living is critical," Mr Sunak said.
“That’s why, with the price cap expected to rise above £3,000 in October, I will move immediately to scrap VAT on everyone’s domestic energy bills for the next year, saving the average household £160.
“This temporary and targeted tax cut will get people the support they need whilst also – critically – bearing down on price pressures.
"As chancellor I knocked £400 off everyone’s energy bill and provided support of £1,200 for the most vulnerable households. This additional VAT cut will help deal with the current emergency.
“I will also begin undertaking major supply side reforms targeted at the rising cost pressures families are facing.
“That means urgently getting more people off welfare and into work, and tackling the supply chain crunch.”
Under his new plan, Mr Sunak would expand the labour force by tightening the rules on out-of-work benefits, doubling the number of hours someone on welfare has to work a week to avoid having to look for a full-time job.
He would also look at new incentives to support inactive older workers returning to the labour market, and would reduce the UK’s dependence on French ports.
Mr Sunak said that he would work with Britain’s biggest importers to build up trade with Dutch and Danish ports, ending the disruption that is causing the shortages and the price increases.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, who supports Ms Truss in the leadership race, suggested the former chancellor had retreated on his welfare proposals.
“Helping people progress in work by getting better jobs and more hours is a key role of job centres," she said.
“DWP [Department of Work and Pensions] will shortly change the rules to ensure people keep looking for extra work until they have at least 12 hours a week, with an ambition to increase that in the future.
“DWP had hoped to get this under way earlier this year, but unfortunately was blocked by the former chancellor.
“I share the ambition to go further but these new proposals require an extra £210m funding.
“In the meantime, we need to get on so we can help people be more prosperous and help grow the economy.”
“Will the real Rishi Sunak please stand up?" said shadow Treasury minister Pat McFadden.
“Once again he’s acting as his own personal rebuttal unit, attacking a policy for months then adopting it.
“Not content with playing hokey cokey with our taxes as chancellor, he’s devised a poor imitation of the windfall tax Labour called for, and now he wants to cut VAT on energy bills.
“It’s like he’s forcing himself to do dodgy cover versions of a band he insists he always hated.
“This is just another example of the Tory party trying to cling on despite 12 years of continuous failure, when the truth is they are out of time and out of ideas.”
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Sarah Olney said that “this sounds like another Sunak Swindle”.
“His tax hikes alone have cost families four times as much as this measly plan would ever save them," Ms Olney said.
“It is proof that both Sunak and Truss are out of touch and out of ideas. All they can offer is half-baked policies that won’t save people from the frankly frightening rise in energy bills this winter.
“Both candidates are tax-hikers who are guilty of breaking promises made to the British public. We can’t trust them to govern this country through an economic crisis.
“If Conservative MPs refuse to listen to our calls for an emergency tax cut, they face a reckoning from Blue Wall voters at the next election.”
Meanwhile, Ms Truss has pledged to publish police league tables while asking forces to slash serious crime by 20 per cent if she wins the race for Downing Street.
She said she wanted police to “spend their time investigating real crimes, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings”.
If she becomes prime minister at the beginning of September, Ms Truss said her government would tell police to cut homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by a fifth by the end of this Parliament.
She would release crime rate statistics showing how each force is performing against the national average, with leaders of underperforming ones forced to give improvement plans.
Ms Truss also wants every domestic burglary to be attended by a police officer in person.
She said she would give police and crime commissioners more powers to “veto training that focuses on identity politics”.
Free speech would be protected in the code of practice governing hate incidents, she said.
“People across our country want criminals locked up and crime prevented, so they feel safe on their streets," Ms Truss said.
“We and our fantastic Conservative police and crime commissioners have made good progress since the 2019 election, with over 13,000 new police officers on the streets and the increase in powers and resources having a real impact in communities around the country.
"But we now need to go further and faster.
“It’s time for the police to get back to basics and spend their time investigating real crimes, not Twitter rows and hurt feelings.
"People can trust me to deliver and these league tables will help hold the police to account, making our streets safer and our country more prosperous.”
The Commons public accounts committee recently warned that the Home Office faces “significant challenges” in hiring another 6,500 officers by next March to reach the Conservative manifesto target of 20,000.
MPs on the powerful committee criticised the programme’s focus so far “on getting people through the door” without setting out how the new officers’ impact on crime will be assessed.
“Burglars, thugs and murderers should expect to be taken off our streets and thrown behind bars, but it’s unfortunate that some chief constables are not cracking down as hard as they should be," said a Truss campaign source.
“Liz will hold their feet to the fire, and these newly published statistics will help the public do the same.”
A campaign representative for Rishi Sunak said: “A lightweight plan based on publishing data the government already does and a power grab away from Police and Crime Commissioners, including many excellent Conservative PCCs driving down crime in their area.
“The real way to get crime down is more police on the streets, which is why Rishi Sunak has prioritised funding to get these 20,000 new officers by the next general election.
“And on ‘non-crime hate incidents’, we don’t need a code of practice. Things are either illegal or legal.
"Free speech is legal and the police should not be wasting time getting involved, and they won’t in a Rishi Sunak government.”
