Kemi Badenoch has said she would “love to see lower corporation tax” and stressed the need to “increase the appetite for risk taking” in a bid to go for growth.
The former business secretary’s comments came during a leadership Q&A session for party members at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
She told the audience of Conservative delegates: “We have excessive regulation and excessive government interference, but we have to ask ourselves why the tax burden has got so high, and then we can figure out how we lower it.”
The now-shadow housing secretary added: “I would love to see lower corporation tax. I think there are businesses that are not starting off. They think the taxes are too high.
“We see the businesses that close. We don’t see the ones that never start because people think it’s too difficult. We need to look at that.
“I think we need to look at taxes that are on things like capital gains and anything that’s what produces risk.
“We need to increase the appetite for risk taking. That is how we produce, that is how we create growth.”
Referencing Liz Truss’ September 2022 mini-budget, Badenoch stressed: “We cut a tax for high income earners, but we didn’t explain that this would be something that would help even those on low income tax.”
In his Q&A session, former security minister Tugendhat stressed his own low tax credentials.
“We need to bring taxes down,” he said. “Let me be clear about taxes. Tax is not raising a loan. Tax is not an ideological point. We don’t do it because we worship high or low taxes.
“It’s because we believe in freedom. The reason we think taxes should be lower is because we think individuals are better when they are freer, when they’re able to make the decisions of their own life, and they’re able to put their effort and their energy into their project.”
The other two leadership hopefuls – former home and foreign secretary James Cleverly, and former migration minister Robert Jenrick – will have their own Q&A sessions on Tuesday.
All four candidates will make a 20-minute speech on Wednesday morning, before Tory MPs vote a further two times, after conference, to eliminate two more candidates.
Party members will cast the final vote, ahead of the result on November 2 – but there are calls to shorten the race so the winner can respond to Labour’s first Budget on October 30.