Tories fear poll disaster over high taxes

MPs turn on Rishi Sunak over living costs crisis

Cut taxation not the deficit, chancellor told

The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is facing a growing Tory revolt over economic policy and his handling of the cost of living crisis, as senior Conservatives warn that high taxes will fatally undermine their party's appeal to voters at the next general election.

Former Tory cabinet minister David Davis said on Saturday that if the Conservatives were to become known as the party of high taxes, the damage to their economic reputation would be as deep and lasting as that inflicted on John Major's government by the disaster of Black Wednesday in September 1992.