Political advantage in the public sector
The rush of recent high-profile endorsements – four former Tory leadership rivals have backed Mrs Truss in the last week – suggests some see political advantage in going public with support now. Sajid Javid became the latest in that group to back Ms Truss, following Nadhim Zahawi, the chancellor, Penny Mordaunt, the trade secretary, and Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons’ foreign affairs committee. Mr Javid, the former chancellor and health secretary, was in charge of the Treasury when Mr Sunak was effectively his deputy, in the role of chief secretary to the Treasury. The pair are believed to have been close politically and personally. Mr Javid did a round of broadcast interviews on Thursday morning supporting Ms Truss. He said in one: “I think Liz is best placed to bring the party together, fix the economy and win Labor over at the next election.” Announcing his support on Wednesday, Mr Javid wrote in The Times: “In the longer term we are more likely to be fiscally sustainable by improving trend growth. Only by returning growth to pre-financial crisis levels can we hope to support the high-quality public services that people rightly expect. Some argue that tax cuts can only come when we have growth. I believe just the opposite — tax cuts are a prerequisite for growth. “Of course we need more than that, particularly significant supply-side reform, but tax cuts now are essential. There are no risk-free options in government. However, in my view, not cutting taxes carries an even greater risk. “With just two years to go before the next election, there has been a temptation to simply ‘keep the barrels out’ and avoid any short-term political pain for long-term national gain. We must reject this. As a nation we are sleepwalking into a big-state, high-tax, low-growth social democratic model that risks becoming a middle-income economy by the 2030s with a loss of global influence and power.”
