It’s a top Tory ploy: so why hasn’t Rishi Sunak cut stamp duty? | Phillip Inman

Firing up the property market with a tax break is usually the Conservatives' go-to tactic in times of trouble. But the chancellor must have his reasons...

Boris Johnson's government, out of ideas and beyond its sell-by date, is stuck in a rut. With the economy heading south as inflation ravages household incomes, there is a sense among Tory MPs that the chancellor should have something more up his sleeve.

Yet all the Treasury can offer them is a looped tape of Rishi Sunak's 2021 budget speech, when he laid out spending plans that were immediately submerged by the cutbacks and tax rises his fiscal conservatism demanded.