Tory MP Esther McVey says she won't back tax rises unless HS2 is axed

Former cabinet minister Esther McVey has fired a warning shot at the government over plans to increase taxes in Thursday's Autumn Statement.

The Tory MP told Deputy PM Dominic Raab putting taxes up was the "last thing" a Tory government should be doing.

And she said she would not support such a move while money was being spent on "unnecessary vanity project" HS2.

Mr Raab defended the government's plans as he stood in for Rishi Sunak at Prime Minister's Questions.

He told Ms McVey he understood her opposition to the HS2 high speed rail link, but urged her to wait for Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's statement on Thursday.

Mr Hunt is widely expected to announce £20bn in tax increases and £35bn in spending cuts, in a near total reversal of the measures set out in Liz Truss's mini-budget in September.

Mr Raab rejected calls by the SNP's deputy Westminster leader Kirsten Oswald to apologise to families for the "financial crisis" caused by the mini-budget and the "worst inflation in 42 years".

Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner attacked Mr Raab over the UK's sluggish economic growth and repeated her party's call to scrap "non dom" tax status for wealthy individuals.

She accused the government of choosing to "protect corporate profits and not household income".

Mr Raab said the economic challenges facing the UK were "global" and caused by Covid and the war in Ukraine, adding: "We've got a plan to grip inflation, balance the books and drive economic growth.

"If we listened to (Ms Rayner), debt would go up, unemployment will go up and working Britons would pay the price."

Mr Hunt's plans to increase taxes are likely to run into opposition from Conservative MPs who supported Ms Truss's tax-cutting agenda - and there is also speculation he will curb spending on big infrastructure projects.

Ms McVey, who represents Tatton in Cheshire and is a longstanding opponent of HS2, said: "Given that we have the highest burden of taxation in living memory, it is clear that the government's financial difficulties are caused by overspending and not due to under taxing.

"Does the deputy prime minister therefore agree if the government has got enough money to proceed with HS2 at any cost, then it has sufficient money not to increase taxes?

"If however, it has so little money it has to increase taxes, which is a last thing for a Conservative government to do, then it doesn't have sufficient money for HS2?"

Earlier this week, right-leaning think tank Policy Exchange released a report calling for all sections of HS2 where main construction has not yet started to be scrapped.

The report, by Boris Johnson's former transport adviser Andrew Gilligan, claimed such a move would save around £3bn a year by 2027/8, and £44bn or more in total - and that it would be welcomed by the public.

Other Conservative MPs to express concern about planned tax rises in recent days, include former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who told Sky News "it is absolutely a fact of life that tax rises will make the recession deeper".

Former minister Sir John Redwood warned Rishi Sunak that tax rises would be unnecessary and counter-productive, in an article for the Daily Telegraph.