Lowering taxes best way to avoid recession, says Liz Truss

Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has defended her plans to lower taxes, describing them as the "best way" to avoid a recession.

She was speaking after she had told a paper she favoured lowering taxes over "giving out handouts" to help households hit by higher fuel bills.

On a visit to Solihull, she said lowering taxes would help ease the cost of living crisis.

Her rival Rishi Sunak wants to tackle inflation before cutting taxes.

Foreign Secretary Ms Truss has pledged to scrap April's National Insurance rise, cancel a planned corporation tax rise and temporarily suspend green levies on energy bills.

Asked by the Financial Times about how she would help households faced with fuel bills due to rise again in October, she said: "Of course I will look at what more can be done.

"But the way I would do things is in a Conservative way of lowering the tax burden, not giving out handouts."

Questioned later about these comments, she said: "What I will do from day one is reduce taxes, reverse the National Insurance rise and also have a temporary moratorium on the green energy levy so people are spending less of their money on fuel bills.

"But what I'm about as a Conservative is people keeping more of their own money, growing the economy so we avoid a recession and the best way to do that is lower taxes, but also unleashing investment into our economy."

She added: "Under the plans at present, what we know is Britain is headed for a recession.

"That is not inevitable, but we need to avoid that by making sure our economy is competitive, that we're encouraging businesses to grow and that we are keeping taxes low."

Her rival Mr Sunak has said he would focus on getting a grip on inflation.