True blue Braverman faces down tax rebels

SUELLA BRAVERMAN has accused Tory rebels of staging a “coup” to force the Government to scrap its plan to abolish the 45p top rate of income tax.

In a wide-ranging interview for The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Politics podcast at the Conservative conference, the Home Secretary entered the debate over welfare spending cuts by warning that Britain still had a “Benefits Street culture”.

She set out her vision to bring net migration down to tens of thousands in the long term while promising new laws to ensure anyone who deliberately entered the UK illegally from a “safe” country like France would be returned to their home state or relocated to Rwanda to claim asylum.

A whirlwind series of conference appearances, starting with her Telegraph interview, established Mrs Braverman’s reputation as a new heroine of the Tory grassroots, with a standing ovation before she had finished her speech in the main auditorium.

She opened with a defence of scrapping the 45p rate, saying: “I’m very

disappointed that members of our own parliamentary party staged a coup effectively and undermined the authority of the Prime Minister in an unprofessional way.”

She singled out former Cabinet colleague Michael Gove for “airing your dirty linen” in public, adding that she was “very disappointed” by his intervention though she accepted the reasons for the subsequent reversal of the policy.

Asked about her stance on the internal Tory row on whether benefits should be inflation-linked, Mrs Braverman said she had supported welfare spending cuts during her leadership campaign. She warned Britain still had a“benefits Street kind of culture” – a reference to a Channel 4 documentary series that aired in 2014.

“There is a stubborn core of our population that sees welfare as the go-to option and is not motivated for financial or other reasons to get out there and work,” she said, arguing there should be more “sticks” to get people back into employment alongside the many “carrots”.

Mrs Braverman declared that her “ultimate aspiration” was to get net

migration down into the tens of thousands, a target that was ditched by Boris Johnson. She declined to put a timescale on it but maintained it was her “unfiltered, unvarnished, unapologetic” aim to bring down net migration despite the push for growth.

She indicated she would be targeting foreign students on “substandard”

courses in “inadequate” universities, their dependants and “low-skilled” workers in, for example, agriculture where farmers should be turning to automation and local UK employees.

Net migration is running at 230,000 people a year – similar to pre-brexit levels – and Home Office figures this summer revealed that the number of visas for foreign nationals to live, study and work in the UK had exceeded a million

for the first time. That included a 170 per cent rise in dependants.

She said: “You see quite a large number of students bringing family members. If you’re coming here for an undergraduate degree, is it justifiable that you bring your family members? If you’re coming here on low-skilled work on a temporary visa, is it justifiable that you bring your family members in? No.”

Mrs Braverman accepted that highskilled worker visas for “techno-geeks” such as broadband or software engineers could increase to tackle shortages and boost economic growth but argued that was not “mutually exclusive” from bringing down overall immigration.

Acknowledging there were no “quick fixes” to the Channel migrant crisis, she confirmed plans to change the law to prevent illegal migrants and foreign criminals “abusing” the European Convention on Human Rights and the Modern Slavery Act to avoid deportation.

At the conference later, she explained the law to applause from the party faithful: “I will commit to you today, that I will look to bring forward legislation to make it clear that the only route

receive free school meals. However, he was rebuked by Kemi Badenoch, the International Trade Secretary, who said she had been “shouting at” him since Sunday morning as he used the conference to criticise the Government.

Mrs Badenoch was supported in the race for the Tory leadership by Mr Gove.

Key crunch votes on the mini-budget will now not take place until spring, The Telegraph understands, potentially giving Ms Truss time to win over rebels.

There were fears that Ms Truss’s speech will be sparsely attended because of today’s nationwide rail strike, which led to hundreds of delegates leaving early last night.

Ms Truss will use her address to pledge a “new Britain for the new era” – as she made it clear her government would be unashamedly pro-growth, pro-aspiration and pro-enterprise.

She will say: “For too long, our economy has not grown as strongly as it should have done.

“For too long, the political debate has been dominated by how we distribute a limited economic pie.

“Instead, we need to grow the pie so that everyone gets a bigger slice.

“That is why I am determined to take a new approach and break us out of this high-tax, low-growth cycle.

“That is what our plan is about: getting our economy growing and rebuilding Britain through reform.”

Ms Truss will argue that only through economic growth can the Government build a Britain that enables people to thrive.

“The scale of the challenge is immense,” she will say. “War in Europe for the first time in a generation. A more uncertain world in the aftermath of Covid. And a global economic crisis.

“That is why in Britain we need to do things differently. Whenever there is change, there is disruption. Not everyone will be in favour. But everyone will benefit from the result – a growing economy and a better future. That is what we have a clear plan to deliver.”

The Prime Minister will pledge to keep an iron grip on the UK’S finances, and set out her belief in fiscal responsibility, value for money for the taxpayer, and the lean state.

She will say: “We are the only party with the determination to deliver.

“Together, we can unleash the full potential of our great country. That is how we will build a new Britain for the new era.”

Ms Truss will attempt to stabilise her position tomorrow by flying off to a gathering of French President Emmanuel Macron’s new European political community.

Downing Street is even hoping to host one of the grouping’s future meetings in the UK, in a sign of re-engagement with the Continent six years after the Brexit vote.

The Prime Minister is pushing for joint working on Nato and migration, in an acceptance that bringing down small boat numbers crossing the Channel needs help from Europe.

‘I am determined to break us out of this high-tax, low-growth cycle. That is what our plan is about’