LONDON (Reuters) -British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Friday that he aims to prioritise tax cuts for businesses once there is room in the public finances to do so.
“As soon as we have the headroom, I want to bring down taxes,” Hunt said in an interview for Saturday’s edition of The Times newspaper.
“My priority would be business taxes, because I want people to know that we’ve got a plan for the long-term prosperity of this country” he added.
Hunt steadied financial markets after the turmoil of former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s “mini-budget” in September.
In a speech earlier on Friday, Hunt signalled he intended to stick with planned tax hikes that have angered members of his governing Conservative Party, when he presents his first annual budget on March 15.
The Times said Hunt was keenest to cut business taxes which are not linked to company profits, such as employers’ social security contributions and business rates, a tax based on commercial property values.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
