James Dyson: Stupid, short-sighted policies are holding back the economy

Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is trying to meet Mr Sunak’s target of halving inflation by 2023 – an immediate focus rather than a cut tax burden, which is the highest in the last 70 years.

Figures on both No. 10 and No. 11 have doubled on the approach in recent weeks, reiterating Mr Sunak’s argument that lower inflation would help economic growth.

But pressure from some backbench Tories for tax cuts is already starting to emerge ahead of the Budget.

Two dozen supporters of Ms Truss gathered in Parliament on Wednesday night to form called “Conservative Growth Group”.

Mrs Truss, a former prime minister, was also in attendance, although she did not speak. The group met in the office of Simon Clarke, former Communities Secretary.

One of the former senior ministers present insisted it was “not an official event” but a casual drinks party that doubled as a “conversation on the importance of growth”.

“I feel really strongly that we must not lose sight of why we need some economic growth,” said the former minister. “If we don’t have growth, we can’t invest.”

The the implosion of Mrs Truss’s economic agenda in the fall, causing interest rates to skyrocket, leading to Mr. Sunak reached 10th place and focused on reducing inflation.

But the group’s formation and Truss’s allies say its supporters are ready to keep fighting back the principles of tax reduction for which she advocated in the coming months.

A decision on the budget is still many weeks away, and the Ministry of Finance is just starting the process. But the mood music of the new year is already becoming apparent, and the prospect of tax cuts is decidedly downbeat.

One Treasury insider told The Telegraph: “High inflation is slowing growth, eating into wages and causing strikes – we need to halve it this year.

“If we deviate from the plan, we risk permanently embedding higher prices into the economy, prolonging the pain for everyone. The sooner we get inflation down, the better.”

Big government is destroying the economy

By Sir James Dyson

It is a measure of our political weakness that the Prime Minister recently stated that it is a “big risk” for a politician to say that “change requires sacrifice and hard work”.

That he thought it dangerous to state something so obvious is very telling. Hard work and sacrifice should be a vote winner, not an electoral obligation. But growth has become a dirty word and an idea too risky to contemplate.

This helps explain why our economy is in shambles and why, on current trends, the average British family will be poorer than a Polish family by 2030. We can turn things around, but only if high-growth companies are allowed to thrive here. And we’ll have to act fast – it’s a global race and our rivals are hungry.

The government must play its part. Starting with the spring budget in March, it must encourage private innovation and demonstrate its ambition for growth.

There are approximately 33 million jobs in the UK, of which 27 million are in the private sector. However, the private sector is too often affected and the target of paying ever-increasing tax bills ranging from huge A 32% increase in corporate tax, a 13.8% Employer’s National Insurance rate, pending the adoption of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s new global minimum tax rate – which targets foreign earnings, many of which spur domestic investment and growth. No wonder the US is getting cold feet.