Liz Truss plans could cost £50bn a year, and will ‘fail to help poorest cope’

Tory frontrunner says tax cuts and spending could cost 30bn, but analysis shows a much higher price

Liz Truss's emergency tax and spending pledges could cost upwards of 50bn a year, with experts warning they will fail to help the worst-off deal with the rising cost of living.

Truss, the strong favourite to be the next prime minister, has promised to cancel the national insurance rise, scrap a planned increase in corporation tax, spend more on defence, and remove green levies on energy bills for households and businesses - all of which would cost billions. She has also suggested boosting freeports, which would entail tax cuts for business, and mooted an increase in the married tax allowance.