The Conservative Party is Britain’s ‘High Tax Party’, Say Voters

EXCLUSIVE: Just 10% of voters still believe Rishi Sunak's claim to be leading a party in favour of low taxation, according to a new poll

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• JUST 10% OF UK VOTERS AGREE WITH RISHI SUNAK THAT THE CONSERVATIVES ARE A ‘LOW TAX PARTY’

• LABOUR ARE NOW SEEN AS BEING MORE OF A LOW TAX PARTY THAN THE CONSERVATIVES

• EVEN CONSERVATIVE VOTERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO LABEL THEIR PARTY AS BEING IN FAVOUR OF HIGH TAXES

• VOTERS SAY BBC CHAIRMAN SHOULD QUIT OVER BORIS JOHNSON CRONYISM SCANDAL

• SENIOR FIGURES RELY ON CRONYISM, NOT MERIT, TO SECURE POSITIONS, SAY PUBLIC

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The Conservative party is now seen as the party of high taxes, according to an exclusive new poll for the Byline Supplement.

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly claimed that the Conservative party is the party of keeping taxes low and insisted that “I firmly believe in lower taxes”.

He has also accused Labour of being in favour of taxing people more, telling MPs that Keir Starmer’s party “always run out of other peoples' money”.

However, polling conducted this week by pollsters Omnisis for Byline finds that voters are now much more likely to see the Conservatives as the party of high taxes than they are Labour.

Overall, just 10% of all voters see Sunak’s party as being in favour of low taxes.

By contrast 42% of all voters, and 57% of all those stating an opinion, now believe the Conservative Party is instead Britain’s “high tax party”.

Even among Conservative voters, respondents were more likely to describe Sunak’s party as being in favour of high taxes, than low taxes, with just 16% agreeing with the Prime Minister that their party was in favour of keeping taxes low.

Despite Sunak’s attacks on Labour, our poll also found that voters are much less likely to see Labour as a high tax party than the Conservatives.

Just 20% of all voters see Labour as being a high tax party, compared to 21% who see it as a low tax party.

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Trussed Up

The question of Britain’s historically high tax burden is becoming a major pressure point within the Conservative Party in the run up to this May’s local elections, in which Sunak’s party is expected to be heavily defeated.

This week the former Prime Minister Liz Truss urged her successor to switch to what she described as a “pro-growth” position and slash taxes.

However, our poll suggests that while a majority of voters would be in favour of paying less tax, voters are more likely to actually vote for a party that focuses instead on increasing funding for public services.